Sterling Death
by TheNightWhispers
Summary: Life as a 15 year old half-blood isnt good to begin with but when this new girl comes to school and the principal assigns her to me, things get worse. Oh yeah, did i mention a war was coming that might destory the world? Didn't think so. Im Nico Di'Angelo, sup?
1. Chapter 1

'**Sup people? So this is another story I'm writing but it's on Percy Jackson, hope you like it. Please Read and Review, I REALLY like to know what you people of the internet think of my stuff :P Oh and if you guys haven't checked out my other story and want to its 'Misery and Roses' and it's a Inheritance Cycle fanfic…so yeah there ya go**

_I walk a lonely road_

_The only one that I have ever known_

_Don't know where it goes _

_But its home to me and I walk alone_

_~Boulevard of Broken Dreams, Green Day_

_**Chapter 1**_

I walked into the class room and made my way to the back of the room and took my seat, dumping my backpack beside my desk. I sighed and looked down at my Ipod, ignoring the teacher, who was rambling about history. Why am I listening to my Ipod instead of my teacher you ask? Because history, or school in general, is _extremely _boring and not worth my time.

"Di Angelo?" The teacher's voice was faint against the music.

"_Di Angelo?"_ He said, louder this time. I looked up at the teacher, glaring at him.

"What?" I said rudely. Mr. Johnson looked at me, obviously irritated.

"Would you care to explain to the class why you are late?" He asked. I rolled my eyes. So I was late. Who gives a crap? I was late because this monster decided to smash into my apartment building and wake me up to the annoying sound of screaming people.

"No, I don't care to," I said and went back to my Ipod. The whole class was watching now and Mr. Johnson stalked over to my desk and grabbed my Ipod and jerked it out of my hand. I glared at him and snatched it back.

"You go ahead and get my pass to the principal, Paul," I said, using his first name. I grabbed my back pack and stalked out of the room, the class ooohhhh'ing and ahhh'ing as I went. I walked down the hallway towards the principal's office, Mr. Johnson following behind me.

I passed the lockers and turned down a hallway and opened the first door on the right and walked in and sat on the chair in front of the desk. My teacher followed. This was…let me see…my fifth trip to the principal's office this week. I didn't really care about the lectures and homework, which is why this is my fifth trip. But that wasn't the only reason. Monsters have been more frequent lately and another one decided to pop up a few days ago. I took care of it but not with some minor damages to some of the lockers…well….ok, maybe major damage. But, anyways, the principal looked at me critically then turned to my history teacher.

"What is it this time, Mr. Johnson?" The principal asked, not really looking interested.

"He's half an hour late to the first hour and he still hasn't gotten any sort of punishment for the damage to the lockers on the east side of the building," Paul explained. While they were contemplating my total torture and boredom, I reached over and grabbed my Ipod and put the ear phones in then scanned down the screen. I decided that Linkin Park sounded good and hit play. I listened to the music and looked around the room. On the far wall above a window the principal had a shelf that held a lot of old antique beer bottles. To the left of that and behind me, was a huge shelf that covered the entire surface of the wall that held a lot of books.

"Mr. Di Angelo," The principal said after a few minutes. I looked at him and raised an eye brow.

"As your punishment, I want you to be in charge of a new student," he said, "She is coming in during lunch, I'll introduce her to you during that time." I groaned. Of all things, he just _had___to assign me to a new student. I had better things to do than baby sit.

"What do you want me to do exactly?" I asked.

"Just make sure she feels at home and show her around the building," Mr. Johnson said, "And give her whatever she needs. You know your way around this place pretty well so you'll be fine." Yeah, of course, getting lost is on the top of my 'Things-To-Get-Worried-About' list. That's not least of my problems. I nodded and stood and started to walk out of the office when Mr. Johnson stopped me.

"Oh no you don't," he said, grabbing my shoulder and turning me around, "Give me the Ipod." I stared at him, but handed it over. I didn't need extra homework or whatever for the rest of the week. I then stalked out of the office and headed to my next class: English. Ugh.

This is how the rest of the day went until lunch: Go to class, take a nap in class, and yell at rest of the kids in class (there annoying beyond words). Pretty exciting huh? I walked into the cafeteria and sat on the table in the back of the room. One of my only friends walked up and sat opposite of me.

"So, I heard you got sent to the principal office again," he said. I nodded while taking a bite of the sandwich I had packed.

"Yep," I said, swallowing, "I got assigned to take care of this new student that's coming to the school. I'm supposed to meet her here soon." Oh yeah, you're probably wondering who this guy is. His names Jason. He's pretty cool he's the one that showed me around when I first arrived at the school.

"Oh you mean what's-her-name," Jason said, pausing while he was eating to think. I took another bite of my sandwich.

"You know her?" I asked. Jason nodded.

"Well, sorta. I ran into her on the way here. Literally."

"Wow," I said, looking at him. Jason smirked.

"Yeah I know. It's just _so_ nice of me to run into the new girl. But yeah, she seemed nice, I guess. She's your type." At this comment I quit chewing.

"Uh...No. I am _not_ dating her."

"C'mon, you haven't even met her yet," he said, smiling like an idiot, "I'm gonna laugh if you two end up together." I rolled my eyes and continued eating. A few minutes later the principal arrived with the new student.

"Miss Sterling, this is the young man that will be escorting you throughout the school," The principal said. Escorting? Really? Exaggeration much? Anyways, I looked at 'Miss Sterling.'

She was wearing a red tank top with a black leather glove on one hand and a skull ring on the other. Her pants were black and looked to be well worn and torn in some places. To rap it all up she was wearing black converse. Her hair was dark but not black and was not quite shoulder length and sorta messy. The principal left us alone.

"So, you wanna show me around real quick?" She asked. I sighed but stood and threw the rest of my food away.

"See ya," Jason said. I just nodded and walked off, the girl following.

"What's your name?" I asked.

"Emery," she said, "Yours?"

"Nico." I stopped at some lockers.

"These are the main lockers. There are some around the corner but there….err…..damaged." Emery smirked.

"What happened to them?" Why did I even bother saying that?

"That's hard to explain," I said. Emery just shrugged and walked over to her locker and entered the code and shoved her stuff in it, not bothering to organize. Well, she's different than the other girls.

"I can tell you really don't wanna be doing this," she said, leaning her back against her locker and looking at me.

"No I don't, I just got assigned because I was late for class," I said, sticking my hands in my pockets. She laughed. I just rolled my eyes. After an awkward silence she finally asked.

"So, are you a transfer student?" I nodded.

"From where?" Why do girls always ask so many questions?

"Lots of places." After that I gave her a seriously quick tour then the bell rang and we made our way to our classes. Of course, we had the same classes. I guess I'll be getting to know this girl. So, yeah. I'm Nico Di Angelo, son of Hades, God of the Dead. Welcome to my world.


	2. Chapter 2

**Thank you for viewing my story, please review and read**

_**Chapter 2**_

I opened my eyes and turned over in my bed. I groaned when I saw the time. 4:45. Why did I always have to wake up unnaturally early? Well, ok that isn't the right, more like, "Why did my _body_ always wake up early?" I rolled out of bed and pulled on my sneakers. I had slept in my cloths so I didn't have to change. Most people probably would but I didn't care. I grabbed my cell phone (yes, I know, it's against the rules for half-bloods to have cell phones, quite bothering me about it), and walked out of my apartment. The hallway was mainly silent, except for the teenagers partying. Whatever in Hades made them do that, I don't know. I pushed the button for the elevator then walked in when it opened. I pushed the button for the first floor and leaned against the railing and waited. When the doors opened and I walked out the lady manning the front desk gave me a weird look. I just glared.

The night air was nice. New York was silent, except for the few gangs hanging around. I walked around, not really going anywhere in particular. I saw a fast food restaurant and decided I could use a soda and walked in. When I got to the cashier, she gave me a weird look, because who wouldn't think it's weird that a fifteen year old is walking around at 4:45 in the morning?

"May I help you?" She said.

"Just a soda," I said handing her the money. Yes, I happen to have money, don't ask where I got it. She handed me a cup, still looking at me weird. I finally got sick of it.

"What?" I half yelled at her. Her reaction was hilarious I have to admit.

"You just seem a little young to be walking around in a bad part of New York alone," she said. I sighed.

"Lady, I'm fifteen." She just shook her head and waved me aside. I took the cup and walked over to the soda dispenser. I scanned the sodas and decided on Mountain Dew then walked out. I walked around NY and before I knew it was at Central Park. I started to get a weird feeling and looked around, my hand slipping into my pocket, feeling for my pocket knife that was really a sword. Sure enough, a huge scorpion appeared out of nowhere. And by huge, I mean ten feet long and at least the height of two me's, and I'm 5'6 ½. I sighed and cursed in Greek then took out my "pocket knife" and pressed a button and the black sword appeared. I thickened the shadows around me and approached the scorpion. It was running around destroying the park and then there were the people. Let's just say they weren't too happy. I stood a few feet away from the scorpion and yelled at it. It turned towards me and I ducked as its claw practically smacked me. I slashed at one of its legs and it made a screechy noise. It tried to grab me with its claw, and it almost pinched me in half, had I not dove to the left. It moved and I was forced to crawl beneath it. I vaguely remembered that Annabeth said that if you stabbed a scorpion in the middle of its stomach or something that it would die. So, I did that and sure enough it died, well started to. But, of course, the universe hates me. The scorpion curled up like spiders do when you smash them, but unfortunately, it curled up on top of me. I managed to crawl out but not without getting covered in this…..stuff. Don't know what it is, it's just gooey and reeks.

The only good thing that came out of this was that my soda survived the whole thing. Talk about a diehard soda. I walked over and grabbed it then made my way back to my apartment. After a few minutes I heard footsteps behind me and turned around. To my surprise, there was Emery, running towards me. She stopped when she reached me and wrinkled her nose. I don't blame her.

"Man, what did you do to smell like _that_?" She asked. I tried to think of something.

"I…fell and landed in this…..stuff," I said. Yeah I know, lame but it's all I could think of. She smirked.

"Smart one," she said, "Well, anyways. I'm glad I found you. My dad wanted to meet you." I groaned.

"Why?" I asked.

"He just wanted to meet the 'young man that showed me around the school,'" she said, using air quotations.

"Fine," I said reluctantly.

"Take a shower first though," she added quickly. I smirked.

"Ok, Mom," I said, adding the 'mom' just because. She rolled her eyes and walked with me to my apartment and waited while I took a quick shower. By the time I was changed and we were ready to go, it was 7:30. She called her dad and asked if she could take me to her house after school and he said sure so we headed to school. Of course we had to come by her house so she could grab her backpack.

We walked through the doors, getting a few looks at us walking in together. I just looked at them darkly and they looked away. I enjoyed the fact that I could scare people so easily. Anyways, we walked into history and took our seats in the back. Mr. Johnson was passing out tests and when he got to me he looked at me oddly, like he was so shocked that I had actually arrived on time. I hated tests. Mostly because I was dyslexic and it was hard to read the tiny print. I swear the people who type up the tests just do that on purpose. It gives me headache. But anyways I did the test and wrote my name on the top then stood and walked to Mr. Johnson. I handed him my test and walked back to my seat. Once there, I reached down and rummaged around in my backpack and grabbed my Ipod then pressed play. After a few minutes Emery finished and we started passing notes, to the amusement of many kids in the class. What's so funny about passing notes I don't know. Soon the bell rang and we went to English, which was boring like usual. I took a nap in this class, mainly because I was tired. However, this nap was rudely interrupted. The teacher, Mrs. Jackson, smacked my head with her stick thing. This, got me irritated and I am not the nicest person when I'm mad. So, I grabbed the stick and smacked her with it. Yeah, I am aware that you could get arrested for abusing a teacher but I didn't really care.

"Nico Di Angelo! Would you like to go to detention?" She asked, surprised by my actions. I glared at her.

"Try smacking with that again and you'll be going to the hospital," I growled.

"I ought to call your parents," she said. Good luck with that lady.

"I don't have any," I said.

"Then who paid for you to get in?" Honestly, does it really matter?

"A friend." Actually, if you wanna know who really paid for me to get into school, it was Chiron. Miss Jackson (and I mean Percy's mother) was going to but I convinced her otherwise. So I went to Chiron, since she so desperately wanted me to go to school. So, Chiron paid for it. I told him he didn't have to but he did. But I'm getting off track. Back to my annoying English teacher.

"Nico, I'll give you a choice," She said. Oh! I'm SO happy!

"You can either go to dentition and let him decide what to do with you or I'll give you extra homework, you can decide." I looked at her, slightly surprised she was being so nice.

"I don't care," I said. She sighed and told me to read some extra chapters in some book and write a ten page essay on it, along with that she gave me some extra grammar sheets to do. I took them and put them in my backpack, by the time all this was over the bell rang and I took off to my next class, not waiting for Emery.

Since I'm sure you guys don't wanna hear about the rest of the day (and because I really don't feel like it), I'll just summarize. Ok, so the next class was math. Nothing exciting really happened in that class, just the usual algebra and annoying kids. After that we had PE, which was fun, at least, more so than the rest of the classes, we played dodge ball. Emery ended up as team captain, so it was me along with a few other kids. We beat the other team by…a lot. It was sorta pathetic. Then there was lunch, Emery sat with me and Jason (which by the way, he found VERY amusing). We talked about random stuff. After _that _there was recess, again nothing exciting. The only remotely exciting thing was the fact that I got into a fight with this dude (which Emery intervened on after a few minutes). My lip and nose were bleeding but not majorly. The other kid however, I can't say had the same luck. I broke his nose. Don't hate on me! He deserved it, the punk. Then there was a break class, which basically 20-ish kids are all stuffed into a class and told to do whatever. And that's it. So now me and Emery are heading to her house. We walked in and Emery tossed her backpack on the floor by the door, I did the same.

"I'm home!" She yelled. Somewhere in the house I heard her dad.

"Hey kiddo!" I heard footsteps on stairs then he appeared in the hallway.

"Is this your friend?" He asked. Oh yeah. You probably wanna know what he looks like. He was tall and had dark hair, like Emery. He was in faded jeans and a shirt with Three Days Grace printed on it. So, he has good tastes in music. That's good.

"Yeah. Dad this is Nico. Nico this is my Dad," she said, gesturing to each of us. We shook hands.

"Nice to meet ya Nico," he said, "Help yourself to whatever's in the kitchen. There's soda, popcorn and some other stuff. But I got to run to Home Depot, I'll be back." He grabbed his keys then he left. They had a nice house, big. We go some sodas and snacks then went up stairs to her room. Aside from her room and the dad's office, there was a huge room that had a flat screen, a couch, one of those mini fridges, a pool table and a rack that had some XBOX 360 games on it. Oh, and the XBOX hooked up to the flat screen.

"So, there's a XBOX and some games," Emery said.

"What games do you have?" I asked, wondering around the room.

"All of the halo's, Call of Duty: Modern Warfare 2, Black Ops and a whole lot of other first person shooters," she said, "Me and my dad like those kind of games." I nodded, smiling. She's not that bad after all.

But, we went to her room, which was a light grey with red splattered on it. The first wall you saw had a window, which looked out over the street, to the right of the window was a table with a computer on it along with one of those wheelie chairs that you can spin around in. To the left of the window was a big CD player with one of those mic's with it, next to the CD player was a stack of CD's. Then there was a dresser, a beanie bag chair, one of those chairs that was circular that sorta dipped in (what do you call those things?), and a queen size bed. All in all, she had a cool room. We listened to music and sat in her bed and talked awhile. Then we fell asleep at 2:00….together….in the bed….alone….yeah that wasn't really supposed to happen. But since her bed was big it worked. We didn't do anything! Geez perverts. Oh, and her dad came over half an hour after he left and he went to bed at like…midnight. At least today was Friday so we had the weekend. Emery wasn't really that bad and her dad seemed pretty cool. So, I guess I have another friend, hopefully it'll last.


	3. Chapter 3

**Here's chapter 3, thank you to the people who reviewed, I am glad you enjoy my story so much. This chapter is SERIOUSLY long, and I mean seriously. It's the longest chapter I've ever written. R&R**

_And maybe it's time to change_

_Leave it all behind, I've never been one to walk alone_

_I've always been scared to try, So why does it feel so wrong_

_To reach for something more _

_To wanna live a better life_

_What am I waiting for?_

_~Maybe, Sick Puppies._

_**Chapter 3**_

Emery's alarm blared at 7:00 in the morning. I guess she forgot to turn it off. Since it was behind me I reached over and smacked the 'off' button then went back to sleep. Because I was NOT waking up at 7:00. Sadly, I didn't sleep that long. I shall repeat what I said a few days ago. Why the heck did my body _have_ to wake up so freaking early? Oh well. I soon realized that Emery's back was pressed against my chest and my arm was around her waist. He he….oops? I quickly moved my arm off of her waist and rolled onto my back. As I lied there, I began to wonder if it was really a good idea for me to become close to Emery. Don't get me wrong, she's pretty cool. But, if I did begin to have feelings for her there are some people out there that I really wouldn't want to find out. She shifted in her sleep so she was facing me and I looked at her. I just watched her sleep.

Pretty soon her head was resting on my chest. I'm assuming that she's not used to have more than one person in her bed. Not that I cared…And no! I don't mean that in that kind of way…geez you people are just like Jason. After a while I decided I wanted to get up, which woke her up. She looked at the clock, it was 8:15.

"Geez it's early," she mumbled. I smirked.

"How long have you been awake?" She asked. I shrugged.

"Maybe a hour," I said, "Sadly, my body likes to get up early. And your alarm didn't help any." I glared at the alarm. She laughed and climbed out of bed.

"Oh, and by the way." She said, I looked at her.

"I did feel your arm around my waist," She said this with a amused look on her face. I felt my face flush slightly.

"Hey! I wasn't doing that on purpose! I'm just not used to sleeping with another person," I protested.

"Suuurree," she said, smiling. I snorted.

"You don't seem to mad," I said. She cocked a eye brow and walked towards me.

"What are you saying exactly?" I seriously had a hard time not smiling, but I did manage to keep a straight face.

"I'm saying that you _liked_ the fact that my arm was around your waste," I said, mockingly. Ah, the conversations I get myself into with girls. Wow, that sounded weird.

"That's it! You're getting it!" She yelled, not really mad just yelling. She shoved my chest and I took a step backward and then bolted around her, out of the door and down the stairs, skipping every three steps. She ran after me. I have to admit, it was fun. I got into the living room and vaulted myself over the couch. She was closer than I thought and she ended up tackling me in mid air, and we hit the carpet. I laughed and we rolled around the floor, kicking and "punching." After a few minutes I pinned her, her arms above her head and my knees on either side of her body.

"Well," she panted, "That was fun."

"Yep, but I'm hungry," I said and helped her up.

We ate breakfast and pretty soon her dad was up.

"I heard a bunch of yelps and laughs," he said, smirking, "what were you two doing?" I took a bite of cereal and said around it.

"She was chasing me around the house." Her dad laughed and got a bowl of cereal.

"So you were the one yelping and laughing?" I made a face.

"No! That was her," I said rather loudly. Apparently, I had made a extremely funny face and they both started laughing.

"We sorta got into a "argument"," Emery explained, "And that's how it started." Her father looked interested and said after swallowing his food.

"Oh? What about?" Well, this made both of us make faces and we looked at each other. This, he found very amusing.

"Ohh. Private matters," he said. Emery opened her mouth to say something then closed it.

After breakfast me and Emery went up stairs to play XBOX. We decided on Black Ops and joined a online game of team deathmatch.

"Dude! I _totally_ killed you first," I said. Emery laughed.

"It's true!" I said, as I killed someone that was going to kill her. We played that for a while then we went outside. She had some skateboards so we used those and rode around the neighborhood.

"Hey, you wanna go to 711?" She asked.

"Yeah sure," I said and I followed her out of the neighborhood and along the main road to 711.

"Your different that what I thought you would be like," she finally said after a few minutes of silence. I looked at her.

"Is that a good thing?" She smirked.

"Considering what I thought you would be like, yes," she said. I smiled. I hate to admit it, but I think I was starting to fall for Emery. I sighed.

"What's up?" she asked, glancing back at me.

"Huh? Oh nothing," I said. We reached 711 and some guy saw us and waved. Emery waved back so I'm assuming she knew him. Once we got to them, she stopped and picked up her skateboard.

"Hey! Man it's been forever," she said to them.

"You got that right," one of them said, "Who's your friend?" I studied him, something around him just didn't seem right.

"This is Nico, he's at my school," she explained. He nodded at me.

"That's cool." So, we all went into 711 and got some slushies then sat on the sidewalk talking.

"So, are you new here Nico?" the guy asked. Oh, and his names Garret, I really need to remember to say that.

"Not really," I said, "I travel around but I've been here for a year maybe two."

"Where do you travel?" I shrugged.

"Lots of places."

We talked for maybe half a hour then I got that weird feeling again. Ugh. I really didn't feel like dealing with a monster. But, I'm a half-blood, that's what I do. Deal with monsters and save the world and all the jerks in it. Not that everyone was a jerk, but a good deal of them. Anyways, I stood and told them that I'd be right back. Before I could even get 15 feet away this hellhound freaking jumps at me. So, I did the natural thing. I ducked and cursed in Greek. My sword appeared in my hand and I stood and started walking towards the huge dog. It growled jumped at me again, I dove to the side, rolling as I hit the ground. The hellhound had tried to turn in mid air, which didn't work out (the idiot dog) , so it lost its balance and stumbled. So, I took my chance and ran at it, slashing its shoulder and jumping back before it could retaliate. Of course, my foot had to hit the curb just then and I fell backwards and the thing lunged at me and I would have been dead hat not this arrow come out of nowhere and killed it. I looked in the direction the arrow had come from and was surprised to see Emery, standing there with a bow, another arrow notched to it, in case the first one hadn't worked.

She walked over to me and offered her hand. I took it and just starred at her. She rolled her eyes.

"What? Never seen a girl with a bow before?"

"You're a half-blood?" I said, still slightly shocked.

"No I'm centaur, yes I'm a half-blood!" She said, slapping my upside the head. I glared at her.

"Who's your mother then?" At that question her eyes darkened. Why? I don't know. Guess she doesn't like that question. She sighed.

"Let's go to my house and me and my dad can explain," she said, the bow disappearing into the skull ring she always wore. We grabbed the skateboards and headed to her house. We got to her house and Emery explained the whole situation to her dad. He took it pretty well. He then looked at me.

"You're a half-blood to, Nico?" He asked. I nodded, sitting down on the couch.

"Yeah." Emery gave me a look like she wanted to know who my parent was.

"Well? Who's your parent?" She asked, sounding like she would explode of I didn't tell her that second.  
>"You sure you <em>really<em> wanna know?" I asked.

"Duh, I wouldn't be asking if I didn't," she said. I sighed and braced myself for the questions sure to follow once I told them.

"My parent is Hades," I finally said. They weren't too surprised, I wouldn't blame them.

"Where's your mother then?" Her father asked. He asked. This was the dreaded question that I hated answering. It brought back bad memories that I tried hard not to think about.

"She's dead," I said quietly.

"What happened to her?" Emery asked, "If you don't mind me asking."

"Me and my sister were born after the pact between the Big Three was made," I explained, "And my mother Maria, told my father that he could leave and that we would be fine, but when he was about to leave, Zeus decided to try and kill me and my sister and my father protected us but my Mother died."

"I'm sorry Nico," her father said. Emery nodded and put a hand on my shoulder. I didn't say anything and waited for the one question I dreaded above all else. What happened to my sister.

"What happened to your sister," Emery said hesitantly. I sighed and thought about not answering but for some reason I did.

"Well, after my mother died my father put us in this school that basically kept us at the age we were when we were put in it and we were in that place for seventy years. Then these other half bloods and a satyr came to get us out—"

"Who were the half-bloods?" Emery interrupted.

"I was about to say that, now no more questions or this will take forever," I snapped, "The half-bloods were Percy, Son of Poseidon, Annabeth, daughter of Athena and Thalia daughter of Zeus and then there was Grover. So they came and got us out and then Artemis and her hunters popped up, I don't know why. And my sister decided to join them and long story short we were on this mission with all those half-bloods listed and a hunter of Artemis and this weird huge robot like thing popped up and Percy did have an idea but it would probably kill one of the half-bloods, now he volunteered but my sister ran off and did it without telling anyone and she got killed along with the robot." Emery blinked like she had just been hit in the head with something really hard.

"So, you don't have anyone to stay with?" Her father asked.

"No, and I like it that way," I said, "But Percy is a good friend and he lets me stay with him whenever I like."

"But, who's your mother Emery?" I asked, getting curious. She looked at her dad like she was a 3 year old kid looking for help. Her dad didn't look much better, they both looked sorta nervous. Why you would be nervous around a fifteen year old kid, I don't know. Then finally Emery sighed and took a deep breath.

"First off, I wasn't really supposed to be born."

"Neither was I," I put in, hoping it might help her. Emery shook her head.

"This is different, Nico," she said.

"Ok," I said, "how?"

"Nico…my Mother is Artemis," she said. Since I was drinking a soda I decided that I would take a sip when she said that. Wrong move. It spewed a good few feet. Of course, I told myself I wouldn't freak out while she was telling her story, since she seemed so freaked but I guess my body decided different. I looked at her then the Mountain Dew on the carpet.

"Sorry…," I mumbled. I calmed myself somewhat.

"I thought Artemis made some sort of pact that she wouldn't marry," I said, a little confused.

"She did." This was her Father. Now, this brought something to my attention. He most have been one heck of a guy back then to get Artemis to have a kid. Sorta ironic that it was a girl.

"So…What made her change her mind?" They both sighed and I decided that I would cut them some slack.

"Hey, you guys don't have to explain all this, I'll understand," I said, looking at them both in turn. They seemed to like that idea. So, we all went to bed since by now it was late. Emery seemed a little distant. Despite myself, I felt sorry for her. Which was new for me. I usually didn't care how people felt, because that's how I was always treated. But, I really did feel genuinely sorry for her. But we went to bed.


	4. Chapter 4

**Chapter 4! Thank you to the reviews. I'm really surprised that it's getting so many reviews in such a short while but I'm glad for it :P in this chapter there's a time skip but not at the beginning of the chapter, its later on ill point it out though. **

_I tried to read between the lines_

_I tried to look in your eyes _

_I wanna simple explanation for_

_what I'm feeling inside_

_Gotta find a way out ,maybe there's a way out_

_Your voice was the soundtrack of my summer_

_Do you know your unlike any other_

_You'll always be my Thunder. _

_~Thunder, Boys Like Girls_

_**Chapter 4**_

First off, I'm seriously glad Emery's alarm didn't go off so I actually slept passed 7:45! I just had to get that out there. Anyways, I woke up at like ten and Emery wasn't there so I got out of bed and grabbed my cell phone then put it in my pocket. I walked down the stairs and saw Emery's dad sitting on the couch watching some sport on the T.V.

"Hey, Nico," He said. I nodded.

"Where's Emery?" I asked.

"She's at the pond by the park," he said. I thanked him and ran out the door and headed towards the park. At least, I hoped it was towards the park. It probably would've been smart to ask him if it was Central Park, but I don't think it has a pond. My phone started vibrating and I dug it out of my pocket. I smiled when I saw Percy on the caller ID.

"Hey!" I answered.

"What's up?" Percy asked.

"I'm looking for this girl," I told him, while I turned on a street. Percy laughed on the other line.

"You're looking for a girl?" I sighed. I probably should've just said her name instead of her gender.

"Yes! I'm looking for this girl. The principal at my school assigned her to me so I was at her house and I woke up and she wasn't there so now I'm going to this park."

"Ohh," Percy said, "Wait you woke up at her house?" Wow Percy. Seriously.

"Not like that. I was spending the night at her house and when I woke up she wasn't there, so now I'm looking for her."

"Gotcha," Percy said, "What's her name?"

"Emery Ste—Geez! Dude watch where you're going!" Percy laughed again.

"Emery what?"

"Sterling," I finished, "She's a half-blood." This got Percy really interested.

"Really? Who's her parent?" Now, I like Percy, I really do and I trust him with my life. I just wasn't sure if I should tell him who Emery's mother is. Since, is seemed like she didn't want a whole lot of people to know.

"I'd have to ask her if I can tell you, because she sorta seemed kind of….I don't know….," I trailed off trying to think of the right word for it. Thankfully, Percy understood.

"Yeah, I understand. If it's all right with her tell me," He said. I smiled.

"Thanks Perc," I said, "Maybe I can bring her to Camp Half-Blood."

"That'd be awesome," Percy said, "summer's coming up anyway."

"I'm glad, I'm growing tired of school."

"Me to," Percy laughed.

We talked for a while and I told Percy I would take her to Camp Half-Blood sometime during the beginning of summer. Then I finally reached that park Emery's dad was talking about. I walked along the sidewalk and I soon saw a pond and there was Emery. Sitting on a big rock skipping rocks. I stopped, wondering if she wanted to be alone. Then I just decided I'd go down there and talk to her. So, I walked over to the big rock she was sitting on and climbed up behind her. She must have been seriously thinking because she didn't hear me.

"Hey," I said. She jerked her head around to look at me, surprised.

"What are you doing here?" She asked. Oh gee what do you think? I was just looking for a place to buy sodas and got lost. I didn't say that, I really don't wanna see her mad.

"Looking for you," I said, moving around to sit next to her. She looked at me and I never realized how bright her eyes were. Yeah, of all the things I would notice that's what I notice. But they were a bright blue. Almost electric.

"Why would you look for me?" She asked. And then it hit me. Ever since she told me that her mother was Artemis she thought I would just ditch her. I'm guessing that's what everybody else did.

"Because," I said, "Your one of my only friends. I don't ditch my friends just because of who their parents are or whatever." Wow, that's the deepest thing I've ever said. I could tell I made some impression on her because she looked like she was going to cry, but she didn't. And then she hugged me. I was surprised because normally, people don't hug me. But, you know I wasn't going to pass up the chance, so I hugged her back.

"Thanks Nico," She said.

"No problem." She pulled away and looked at me curiously.

"What do you mean 'one of my only friends'?" She asked.

"Emery, think about it. My dad's Hades, most people don't like that," I said.

"Jason doesn't seem to mind," she said.

"Jason doesn't know."

"Oh." I laughed at her bluntness.

And then she did something I didn't expect. She shoved me….of the rock and into the pond. I resurfaced and glared at her. She just laughed. I climbed half way up the rock and grabbed her ankle and pulled her in. She yelped and pushed me under the water and we started playing around. Splashing each other, kicking…you know, the usual stuff. Finally we walked out of the pond and sat on the ground, panting. I shook my head, my hair flinging water.

"Now I gotta go all the way back to my apartment and get a change of cloth's," I said, glaring but not really mad.

"I could drive you," She said. I blinked.

"You can drive?" She nodded.

"Yeah, well…I'm learning but my dad says I can get my driver's license soon."

"Oh, well yeah you can drive me, just don't crash or something." She stood and bowed.

"Yes, oh Wise One," she said jokingly. We both laughed and walked back to her house.

We got there and Emery told her dad what happened and that she was going to drive me do my apartment. She's actually a good driver, believe it or not. Once to my apartment, she sat on the bed waiting patiently. I found a pair of jeans and slipped them on but I had to search for a shirt. Yes, I was walking around my apartment with no shirt on.

"Having some trouble finding cloths?" Emery asked, amused. I could feel my face heating up.

"Eh hehe….yeah." After a few minutes I finally found a shirt and we walked back out to her car.

"While I was looking for you Percy called," I said, once we were in her car, "He was wondering if I could take you to Camp Half-Blood." Emery buckled her seat belt.

"Camp Half-Blood?" I nodded.

"It's a camp for half-bloods," I explained, "They have lava-rock climbing, archery, sword fighting, Capture the Flag, all kinds of stuff and cabins for all the gods and goddesses."

"Even Artemis?" She asked, looking at me.

"Yeah, it's usually for the hunters that sometimes come by but I don't see why you can't use it, if you wanted to go." I could tell she was skeptical about going, because of her heritage.

"The activities director, Chiron, is a really nice guy….err… centaur he would understand your heritage," I told her reassuringly.

"What about all the other campers?"

"Percy really wants to meet you and he would defiantly understand, and Annabeth is his girlfriend, she's nice to."

"Didn't you already tell Percy about my mother?" I looked at her.

"No, I wanted to ask you first." She smiled.

So, she said she would come with me to camp half-blood and we decided to go the mall to hang out. We talked , got some snacks and walked around. It was nice actually. I usually don't like the mall but its different when your with a friend. After a while we went back to her house, I never realized how long we were there. It was already midnight. We both plopped down on her bed and fell asleep. Ugh. I think I'm getting into a habit of sleeping with her. That sounded perverted.

***Time skip***

So it was summer. We had our finals at school. I sorta ditched the first few… but I did take the rest. I don't know how I did, don't really care either. But anyways, the school days were basically like all the others. Take naps, yell at kids, yell at teachers, go to the principal, and talk to Emery and Jason. Like she promised, Emery went with me to Camp Half-Blood. We did talk to her dad about it, he said it was fine if it was what she wanted to do. So, she drove us to the camp. She parked the car at the base of half-blood hill with Thalia's tree at the top. We got out and started up the hill. I could hear the sounds of the Ares cabin fighting with some other kid. This Ares kid was specifically, Clarisse.

"They don't sound too friendly," Emery commented.

"Oh there nice, just Clarisse is…..short tempered and violent, but she's a Ares kid." Emery nodded, smirking. Once we were at the top of the hill, we could see, sure enough, Clarisse arguing/fighting with an Apollo kid.

"The one on the left is Clarisse the other one is an Apollo kid, I don't recognize him," I told her.

"Gotcha," Emery said.

"Nico!" I turned to see Annabeth and Percy heading towards us. I waved.

"I'm gonna guess and say that's Annabeth and Percy," Emery said, smiling.

"Uh huh," I said.

"Who's your friend?" Annabeth asked.

"This is Emery, Emery, you know who they are," I said.

"Hi," Emery said, shaking her hand then she looked at Percy, "You must be Percy." He nodded, smiling.

"Yup! I'll show you to Chiron," He said, leading me, Emery and Annabeth to the Big House. We walked towards the house and, like usual, there was Chiron in his wheel chair sitting and playing cards with Mr. D.

"Who's the other guy," Emery whispered to me.

"That's Mr. D he's the head consoler and Chiron is the guy in the wheel chair," I told her quietly.

"Hello Percy, Annabeth," Chiron said then he saw me, "Ah Nico, you decided to drop by." I nodded.

"Chiron, this is Emery," Percy explained, "She a half-blood…." He trailed off, glancing at me. I just looked at him, hoping he got my silent message. Chiron rolled over on his wheel chair.

"Hello my dear," He said.

"Hi," Emery greeted, shaking his hand when he held it out.

Annabeth showed Emery around the place while me and Percy went inside the Big House to talk to Chiron.

"Has she been claimed yet?" Chiron asked.

"Yeah she has," I said, as I sat down by the ping pong table that was used as a normal table. Percy and Chiron joined me, Chiron standing since he had gone to his centaur form.

"Do you know her parent, Nico?" Chiron asked. I nodded.

"Does she live with her mother or father?" Percy asked.

"Her dad," I explained, "Nice guy." They could tell I was uncertain on what to do about her godly parent, even though Emery said I could tell them.

"Nico…?" Chiron said slowly. I sighed.

"Her mother's Artemis," I said bluntly. They looked at me, surprised.

"Nico, how's that possible?" Percy asked. I shrugged.

"I don't know, they didn't explain that part." Percy looked at Chiron, who was deep in thought.

"Are you sure about this?" He finally said. I nodded.

"Yeah." Chiron sighed.

"She will use her parents cabin, like usual," Chiron said, "Treat her like a normal camper." Percy nodded and we walked out.

I'll summarize the rest of the day. Percy and I met up with Emery and we went to the arena for sword fighting. She watched me and Percy spare then Percy handed her a sword. I watched as she and Percy spared. She's actually pretty good for a beginner. Then we went to the archery place, which Percy didn't participate in. I guess I'm ok at archery, but it's not my strong point. Emery gave me some tips though. So, after that it was dinner, nothing much happened there. She sat with me though. Then there was the campfire. _Then_ we went to bed. She went to her own cabin and I went to mine. All in all, it was a good day.


	5. Chapter 5

**Here's chapter 5. You guys are reading faster than I can update but that's ok, I guess it's a good thing ^_^ oh, and this one is really long…like seriously it's the longest one I've written. **

_What have I gotten into_

_This time around? _

_I know that I had sworn_

_I'd never trust anyone again_

_But I didn't have to, you had me at hello_

_~You Had Me At Hello, A Day To Remember_

_**Chapter 5**_

I was sleeping peacefully when someone knocked on the door to my cabin, pretty hard to. This better be seriously important or someone's getting hurt. I groaned and rolled out of bed and walked to the door, rubbing my eyes to wake myself up somewhat. I cracked open the door.

"What?" I said curtly. It was Annabeth who was at the door, behind her (of course) was Percy then Emery.

"Chiron wants to see you," She said, "And you do know you missed breakfast?" I yawned.

"Yeah I knew and what does Chiron want?" She shrugged.

"I don't know, but he says it's important." Oh, he better hope it's important.

"I'll be there in a sec," I said, and shut the door. I walked over to my dresser and grabbed a random shirt and slipped it on. Once I had the shirt on I strode back to the door and walked out.

I followed Annabeth and Percy towards the Big House, Emery walking beside me.

"I didn't think you'd be the type to miss breakfast," Emery said. I shrugged.

"I didn't get much sleep last night," I told her, "Stupid dreams."

"Ohhh," she said, "I hate those to." I just smirked and opened the door to the blue building. Yes, its blue, I don't know why, maybe they thought it would look nice. Chiron was standing by the ping pong table in his centaur form. I walked over, still slightly pissed at being woke up.

"So, what's so important that you had to wake me up?" I said, my voice hinting at irritation.

"I am sorry Nico, but we just got an iris message from Artemis," he said, "It seems that Thalia and one of her other hunters have been captured. She wants me to send out a team of half-bloods to go rescue them." I sighed. The gods are always sending us out on stuff they could do just as well as we could.

"Why can't she go save her hunters on her own?" I asked, "There her hunters anyway, it's her responsibility to take care of them." Now, this was a personal statement as it was a normal question. I highly disliked the hunters because my sister left me and joined them, getting killed in the process. Thalia was ok, but she was the only one I remotely liked.

"That is true," Chiron said slowly, "But the gods won't let her, she said that they needed her for something."

"So, what, you want me to take a few half-bloods and go find Thalia and some other hunter?" Chiron nodded.

"Just find them and bring them back here," He told me. I sighed.

"Alright," I said, "Just let me get ready." Chiron nodded and we all walked out of the Big House.

Emery and I went back to my cabin and she sat on one of the top bunks, watching. I grabbed a backpack and put some ambrosia in it, some human money and drachmas and a cell phone in case I needed it.

"So, who's this Thalia?" Emery asked, "You mentioned her when you were talking about your sister." I nodded.

"Yeah, she's the head hunter aside from Artemis," I told her, "She nice, different, but nice."

"Ah," Emery said, watching as I slipped on some shoes. I paused and looked at her on the top bunk of the bed I usually slept in.

"You can come if you want," I told her, "It might give you a chance to meet your mother."

"Chiron said you had to choose the half-bloods, at least that's what he meant," she said. I nodded. Then there was another knock on the door. I stood and walked over and opened the door. It was Annabeth again.

"What's up?" I said.

"I managed to contact Thalia," She told me.

"And? Do you know where she is, or at least a general area." The daughter of Athena nodded.

"It was shaky but I got something about being in some island," she told me, her thumb nail close to her mouth like she always does when she was thinking, "where ever it was, it was dark." I nodded.

"K, thanks Annabeth." I started to turn away so I could finish getting ready but she grabbed my arm.

"Be careful Nico," She said, looking at me with her grey eyes. I blinked.

"Well, I was gonna take you," I said hesitantly.

"Oh, well…," She trailed off.

"And if there's water it's probably best to take Percy," I added. Annabeth nodded and ran off to get Percy and get ready. I shut the door and looked at Emery.

"I'm not gonna force you, but I'd like you to come," I told her. She smiled at me.

"Alright, since you obviously don't like the idea of going somewhere without me," She said teasingly. I rolled my eyes.

"Shut up." She laughed and jumped down from the bunk.

"I'll get ready," She said, and walked out the door. I zipped the backpack up and put it over one shoulder, grabbing my pocket knife/sword and slipping it in my pocket.

Once, me, Percy, Annabeth and Emery were ready we got into a car with Argus and he drove us to a place where we could eat and figure out where we should start. Besides, who can think on an empty stomach. So, we were in a burger place, sitting at a booth, a map spread out across the table. Annabeth was studying it carefully.

"You said that Thalia said that she thought they were on some island in someplace dark," Percy said, "Right?" Annabeth nodded and looked at her boyfriend across the table.

"Yes, but she wasn't sure which island," She said, "Which is a problem." We all nodded.

"Could you see their surroundings at all?" Emery asked. Annabeth thought a minute.

"They looked to be in some sort of cell, but I couldn't tell exactly because the message was shaky."

"And that cell was seriously dark," I added. Annabeth nodded.

"Well, we could travel to all the islands with dark places on them," Percy suggested.

"Yeah, but that could take forever," I said, "And we don't have forever." He nodded.

"Do you think you could iris message Thalia again and maybe get more information?" Emery asked.

"No, she said not to, it would attract attention," Annabeth said. We all sighed.

We discussed different ideas on islands and stuff. Really, the only thing we could come up with aside from travelling to all the islands with dark places on them, was to maybe find an expert on islands and ask the dude about islands with dark, cell-like areas on them. Honestly, I could go either way but shadow-travelling to islands would take a lot out of me. And a boat would take forever, unless Percy could maybe speed up the pace a little, but that would most likely drain him. So, we went to a motel and got a room. It had a bathroom, two beds and a T.V. Me and Emery shared a bed and Percy and Annabeth did likewise. We stayed up watching a movie on T.V, then we went to bed.

"Hey, Nic, wake up." The voice came to me faintly, I groaned and turned my head away. Then I felt a pillow smack me. Can't a 15 year old get some sleep around here? After the pillow I felt someone slap my chest. I finally just opened by eyes.

"I'm awake! Gods," I said. Emery was looking at me, her chin resting on my chest. Percy looked amused and Annabeth was rolling her eyes.

"Your _way_ to comfortable with sleeping with me," I told her. She just smirked.

"And so are you," she countered. I rolled my eyes. She laughed and let me up. I stretched and looked at Annabeth.

"Have any ideas on what to do?" I asked.

"There's a museum with an island expert a few blocks down," She told me, "We could go talk to him." I nodded and put my shoes on and we all walked out of room and down the hall towards the front lobby.

We walked a few blocks and started up the steps towards this museum. At the tops of the steps it had a pedestal with a horse with a rider on top of it, one on either side of the steps. Annabeth led the way to the front desk and a lady looked up as we approached.

"May I help you?" She asked, studying all of us in turn.

"Yes," Annabeth said, her voice holding a note of authority, "I heard there was an island expert here, is he available?" The lady typed some stuff into her computer then looked at Annabeth.

"Mr. Smith is busy right now, if you want I could make you an appointment," she said.

"No, I would not like to make an appointment, we need to see him now," Annabeth said, her voice growing irritated.

"Look, I'm sorry bu—" She started but never finished. I stepped forward, looking at the lady darkly.

"Lady, it's very important that we see this guy," I growled, "Tell us where he is and there won't be any trouble." She sighed.

"Go straight down and go up the stairs and take the first left, it's the first room on the right," She said. I nodded and led the way towards the room. I noticed Percy glancing back at this lady and made a mental note to ask if what was up.

Like the lady said, he was in a meeting and pointing with one of those laser things at something on the wall. We walked in and everyone turned to look at us, four teenagers.

"Yes?" the dude I'm assuming is Mr. Smith said.

"You know about islands, right?" I asked, walking up to him. Hey, I was the leader of this quest, I had to take charge at some point.

"Yes, but I'm afraid I'm busy right now," He said, "If you make an appointment or wait until I'm finished I'll get to you as soon as I can." I smiled, but it wasn't friendly, apparently he could tell because he narrowed his eyes.

"It's important, we don't have time to wait or make an appointment," I said threateningly. Mr. Smith turned to the people in the room.

"I'm terribly sorry," he said, then he turned to me, "Listen, boy, I can call security on you."

"I'm fully aware of that, I didn't want to do this," I said, reaching into a side pocket of my backpack and pulled out a syringe with sleeping drug in it and quickly injected him with it. His eyes rolled to the back of his head and he started to fall, all the people gasping. Percy caught him and Annabeth helped him carry the man out. I followed them out, Emery behind me.

Percy and Annabeth carried Mr. Smith into a different room a few doors down.

"What did you inject him with Nico?" Percy asked.

"A sleeping drug, I have another one to wake him up," I said, digging out in my backpack.

"Why did you bring that with you?" Emery asked.

"In case we needed it," I said, looking at her, "Originally, it was for different purposes, but he was annoying me so I used it." I injected him with the drug that would wake him and he groaned.

"Percy, you might wanna get ready to restrain him," I said, looking at my cousin. He nodded and knelt behind him. Sure enough, he woke up and got reacquainted with everything and tried to bolt, but didn't get far. Even though the guy was older than Percy, I think a son of Poseidon is stronger than your average man, at least a little anyway.

"What do you want?" He said, looking at Emery, Annabeth and Percy, but his eyes lingered on me. I'm sure a teenager, dressed in all black carrying a sleeping drug is very scary…For your average person.

"If you promise not to bolt, Percy will let you go," I said slowly. Mr. Smith hesitated but promised and Percy released him.

"We need to know about any island that has dark cell-like areas or buildings on them," I told him, and Annabeth took out the map and laid it out in front of him. He studied the map and put his finger on an island far out into the ocean.

"This has an abandoned building on it," He said, "I don't know much about it, but I heard a long time ago there were some hostages taken there, they were kept in rooms similar to cells." He looked at all of us again.

"Why is this important?" He asked, "Who are you?" Emery took a step forward.

"It doesn't matter who we are," She said, "Thank you for cooperating." Mr. Smith looked like he was about to persist but Annabeth packed the map into her backpack and we started out the door.

No sooner did we get out of the room, there was screaming and people running around everywhere. I looked around, drawing my sword, as did Percy and Emery, Annabeth taking out her dagger. Sure enough, there was one of the three Fates flying around. We approached the Fate, spreading out a little. It saw us and hissed and dive bombed Emery, who jumped out of the way. Percy was behind her and slashed at the Fate. It screeched and lunged at Percy. He dodged and blocked as best he could, but the Fate was fast. I ran at the Fate, going to help my cousin. It smacked Percy with its wing and he went flying into a pedestal holding a glass artifact, which fell, breaking. I glared at it and thrust my swords towards it, since it was within range. It dodged and my sword only clipped it. Annabeth had gone invisible and stabbed it with her dagger and it hissed then whirled around. I sneaked up on the Fate, since it was preoccupied with trying to find Annabeth. Once I was close enough I slashed it with my sword and it twisted and slashed me with its claws. The blow had such force behind it that I went flying a few feet, my arm starting to bleed. Not only that, I dropped my sword when I hit the ground. Great.

It flew at me and I braced myself. It would have killed me but Emery got in way and took the blow, collapsing right in front of me.

"Emery!" I yelled. I reached over and grabbed my sword and lunged at the Fate. Yes, I know, acting on your emotions isn't the best idea but don't blame me. I slashed it across the chest and it disappeared in a burst of gold dust. I sheathed my sword and put it back in my pocket and jogged back over to Emery. Percy and Annabeth were kneeling next to her. To my surprise, so was Mr. Smith. I guess he could see through the Mist. I knelt next to Emery, the only daughter of Artemis. Her side and torso were gouged and torn in many places. Annabeth was pressing cloth to the wounds, but it did little to help the bleeding.

"You need to get her to a hospital," Mr. Smith said, helping Annabeth with the bleeding. Percy looked at the man.

"Can you see through the Mist?" Mr. Smith looked at him blankly, so Percy rephrased the question.

"Could you see what we were fighting?" Mr. Smith nodded.

"What was that thing?" He asked.

"One of the three Fates," Annabeth explained, "They live in the Underworld." Mr. Smith nodded. I didn't say anything, I just starred at Emery. She wasn't dying, that much I knew, but I also knew how severe the wounds were. I couldn't believe she risked her life for mine. Sure, it was noble and everything, but I would have her live and me die than vice versa.

"So, you guys are half-bloods?" Mr. Smith asked, hesitantly. Percy nodded but he didn't say anything about our parents.

Mr. Smith offered to drive us to a hospital and we accepted. I carried Emery bridal style to his car. We had to stretch her out across all of us since he had a tiny car. I took my hoodie off and wrapped it around her sides and torso. I held her head in my lap, moving her hair out of her face.

_Please be ok, _I thought. I was aware of Percy watching me but I didn't care. By the time we reached the hospital, my hoodie was soaked with blood. I carried her into the hospital and we had doctors taking care of her pretty quick. Which was good, because if not I would have started yelling at people. I'm not the most patient person in the world.

A few hours passed and Emery was doing better. Her wounds had been cleaned and bandaged. Percy, Annabeth and Mr. Smith were waiting outside, while I was sitting in a chair in the room. I was starring at the floor, thinking when she spoke.

"Nico….Is that you?" She said, weakly. I stood and went to the side of her bed.

"Yeah it's me, how are you?" I asked. She smiled weakly.

"Fine, how's your arm?" I had bandaged my arm on my own, even though the nurses had insisted on looking at it I told them I was fine, which I was.

"Fine," I said, "Why'd you do that?"

"You would have done the same," she said. I sighed, that was true. As much as I hated to admit it, I was starting to fall for Emery.

"I'm just glad you're ok," I said quietly. Then she did something I didn't expect. She propped herself up on her elbow and reached up and kissed me. I was seriously surprised and when she pulled away I stood there starring at her like an idiot. Of course, she found that funny and laughed. I just glared, but I was smiling so it didn't do much good.

"What was that for?" I asked, blushing. She rolled her eyes.

"What do you think?"

"Uh…hehe…," I trailed off, scratching the back of my head. I had a habit of doing that when I was embarrassed.

"Aww," Emery teased, "Nico's bashful."

"I am not!" I protested. She just laughed and kissed me again. I could tell she was just teasing me. But I surprised her by kissing back. Emery blushed and dropped her eyes. I chuckled.

"Now who's bashful, huh?" I asked, mockingly.

"Alright! I get it," she said, looking at me. I laughed and walked out of the room, letting her rest. I sat on the bench next to Percy and Annabeth. Percy gave me a questioning look, I just smirked at him. Mr. Smith was standing a few feet away, I think he knew what happened because he just smirked and rolled his eyes.


	6. Chapter 6

**Hello people! So, here' chapter 6, Thanks for all the views even though the stories still kind of new. FYI: I don't know if any of you guys are reading the Heroes of Olympus books, with Jason, Piper and Leo. But, I'm pretending that Percy was at the Roman Camp Half-blood (which he might be, idk) but pretend he was and he's back now. lol**

_**Chapter 6**_

We checked out of the hospital and sat on a bench on the corner of a stop light.

"So, what island was that guy pointing at?" Emery asked.

"It looked like Impervia Island," Annabeth said.

"Never heard of it," Emery said.

"Me neither," I added. Percy looked like he was deep in thought.

"You heard of it Percy?" I asked.

"It sorta sounds familiar…," Percy trailed off.

"Well, explain anyway," Emery said, looking at Annabeth, who was looking at the map.

"Like Mr. Smith said, a long time ago, hostages were taken there," She explained, "Why they were taken there is unknown, but what I do know is that a great war was there. It was between half-bloods."

"Half-bloods usually don't fight each other, unless it's the Roman and Greek half-bloods," Percy said, looking confused. Annabeth nodded.

"That's true Percy; oddly enough it was a mix of both."

"On the same team?" I asked. She nodded again. This world couldn't get any weirder.

"Yes," Annabeth continued, "The battled lasted a good few days, maybe longer. Not much is known about it."

"So, your saying," Percy said, "That Thalia and one of her friends could have been captured by half-bloods, Roman or Greek?"

"It's not for sure, but yes, it might not even be half-bloods, it could be something different entirely." I groaned. Of course, I half hoped it was half-bloods, that way I wouldn't have to face anything seriously huge or whatever. But then again, half-bloods are stronger than monsters, most of the time anyway. And I seriously don't wanna face off with my Roman brother or sister or whatever. Then again, I had to get Thalia and her friend back alive whether I liked it or not, and I was planning on doing that.

So, you're probably wondering which side of the world this island is on. All I know it that it's seriously far out in the ocean off of California. We went to a car dealer and sorta….stole a car…..Don't flame me! It was an emergency and I couldn't shadow travel in broad daylight. It was a cool car though so it's all good. Mostly. The car was black mustang with tan leather interior. Percy drove, since he could legally drive, and Annabeth sat up front with him and me and Emery in the back. Despite my urges for him to speed since we were sorta in a hurry, he wouldn't. He said that we didn't need the cops on us, which was true, but you know I could deal with that. While we were driving towards CA, I noticed someone was following us. Great, just what we needed some jerks following us.

"Uh, Perc," I said, looking out the back windshield, "I think some dudes are following us."

"Are you sure?" Percy asked, Annabeth was telling Percy where to go.

"Yeah, well, mostly," I said, "I'll keep watching them and you drive, if there following I'll tell you."

We drove for a while, it was midnight now and the people were _still_ following us.

"You should pull over and see if they do the same," Emery suggested. Percy nodded and pulled over, putting the car in park and sliding out of the car, Annabeth followed. Me and Emery sat in the back, watching. They pulled over, maybe fifteen feet away and they seemed to be discussing something, then the one in the passenger side slide out. I narrowed my eyes, he was carrying something.

"Nico…..He has a gun," Emery said quietly and slowly. Apparently, Percy and Annabeth noticed to. Percy approached the dude with the gun, Annabeth looking like she would follow soon enough.

"Something isn't right about these guys," I said. I watched as Percy walked up, one hand in his pocket the other gesturing, like he was saying something and adding emphasis with his hand. The other dude, who looked in between my age and Percy's, which could be 16-19, still gripped the gun, but didn't aim it at him. They looked to be arguing. Finally, I got sick of watching and got out of the car and walked over.

"….Mean any harm," Percy was saying. The dude he was talking to saw me and narrowed his eyes. I grabbed Percy's arm and said I wanted to talk to him; he walked over with me a few feet away.

"These guys give me a bad vibe," I said quietly. Percy nodded.

"Same here. I got the same feeling being at the Roman Camp."  
>"Your saying there Roman half-bloods?"<p>

"Possibly." I groaned.

"Great," I mumbled. We walked back over.

"Who are you guys?" the guy Percy was talking to said.

"Oh gee, I could as you the same thing," I said. Percy gave me a warning look, I ignored it. The guy took a step towards me but Percy blocked his path. He was always protective of me.

"I'm Percy Jackson, this is Nico, and you might be…?" Percy said.

"Matt—"He was about to say his last name when his friend walked up and jerked him away and said something urgently. Whatever he said changed the dude's attitude quickly and he gave us pretty good death glares.

His partner walked towards us, holding a golden bladed sword. Good, he wasn't a son of Hades, but obviously Roman. What was wrong with Greeks and Romans getting along, I don't know and don't care. I just needed to get to that island and get my friends…well one of them. Percy drew his sword and Annabeth gestured to Emery and they started over to. The guy struck at Percy and they started fighting, I eyed the other guy and drew my sword. I smiled darkly when his eyes visibly widened.

"Never seen a Hades kid before?" I asked, "Or is it Pluto?" Just so you guys who don't know can know, Pluto is the Roman God of the Dead. He struck at me with a sword, again just golden. We got into a fight. I think I surprised him with my skill at fifteen. Emery and Annabeth watched. I could tell Annabeth was deciding whether or not to intervene.

"Hey!" She yelled. Guess so she decided to. We all paused, the two dudes giving her looks.

"We don't wish to fight," She said, looking at the Roman demigods. They looked at each other. The guy that Percy was fighting pointed his sword at him, he wasn't threatening, just pointing.

"You're Percy," he said, "that's Nico, who are those two." I looked at Emery. She looked pretty confident. Percy looked at me, it was obvious he was looking for permission. I guess he saw me as the leader. Now, the guy I was fighting noticed his look and studied me.

"You 're the leader?" he asked. I nodded.

"You seem a little young," he commented. I smirked.

"Don't let that fool you," I said. I sighed. I wasn't a trusting person, but I didn't see the harm in telling them our names at least.

"That's Annabeth and Emery," I said, gesturing to them in turn, "Now who are you?"

"I'm Matt and that's Alex," The guy I was fighting said.

"Why were you following us?" I asked. Matt and Alex exchanged looks. I decided it was either a mission or something else.

They talked quietly for a few minutes then Alex looked at me.

"It doesn't matter," He said and before I could say anything else they were in the car and gone. We got back in our car and proceeded to California.

"Well that was…interesting," Emery commented.

"Yeah, they were Romans," Percy said.

"How do you know?" Emery asked.

"I stayed with them for a while," He explained, "I wasn't trying to. I don't know how it happened but I forgot who I was, at least, I forgot that I was Greek." Emery nodded but didn't ask any other questions, seeing that he didn't like the subject. Percy and Annabeth took turns driving, so the other person could have a chance to rest. Me and Emery fell asleep and slept for a while. Then I felt Percy gently shaking my shoulder. I groaned.

"Hmm?" I asked, rubbing my eyes so I could see clearly.

"We're at a hotel," he explained, "We're taking a break until tomorrow." I nodded and followed them into the hotel. It was basically the same kind of room as the last hotel. Two beds, bathroom, T.V. Same bed reservations to, me and Emery and Percy and Annabeth. I actually didn't mind sleeping with Emery. Probably 'cause I liked her. Ugh. I defiantly didn't want any of those Roman demigods finding out. That would only lead to bad situations. Emery fell asleep before me, and I just lied there watching her sleep. I eventually fell asleep though.

I felt someone poke my stomach and groaned and moved an arm to block there finger. Then the person poked my side. Persistent, much? I still refused to get up, I was comfortable. Then they started tickling me. Unfortunately, that was hard to ignore. I opened my eyes, smiling slightly. Emery was the one tickling me, I realized that my arm was (again) around her waist. I moved it and she just smirked.

"Time to get up sleepy head," she said, sitting up. I groaned when I saw the time and grabbed my pillow and put it over my head. I heard Percy laugh. Emery started tickling me again. My hands immediately went to block hers. That made her laugh.

"C'mon! You need to get up!" She said.

"Fine," I said, "Just quite tickling me." I stood and reached down on the floor to grab my shirt and pulled it over my head. Yes, I slept in a bed with Emery without a shirt. I got hot though. And, no that's not an excuse.

We went downstairs to have the breakfast they served at the hotel. I had some pancakes, cereal, toast, a muffin and some other stuff and milk. What? I was hungry! After that, we went to our mustang and drove off. Once again, heading to California. It was mainly boring. Just streets, houses, cars, a whole bunch of idiots that somehow know how to drive. Then I started to sense that someone died. Happy, I know.

"Uh..," I started to say.

"What Nico?" Annabeth asked, looking at the rearview mirror to look at me.

"Someone just died," I said bluntly. Emery laughed. I guess it was how normally I said it that made it funny.

"Ok, where?" Percy asked. I paused, going through the person in my head. Then I leaned forward and pointed at this exit.

"Go that way." Percy did and I gave him some other directions and we got to this house in a nice neighborhood. It seriously didn't look like a place where someone would have died. We got out of the car and they followed me into the house. The doors were unlocked. Not the best sign. I walked in and went through the house and soon enough found the dead body. It was just a kid, sadly. Just twelve. I walked over and knelt next to him.

"Who is he?" Annabeth asked.

"Michael Johnson," I said, "He was half-blood, but didn't know how to defend himself." They dipped their heads, Percy's eyes darkening. I did my little ceremony thing and prayed to my Father that he would have a save trip to the Underworld and that he would be nice to him, at least nicer. Then the monster showed up. I assumed it was the same one that killed the kid and sensed us. It was a huge hellhound. And I mean huge, I've never seen them this size before. We all drew out weapons and it attacked. We had a lot of trouble, but we eventually killed it.

"We should get out of here," Emery said. We all nodded and started for the door, only to run into the kid's parents. We were sorta sweaty, so I'm sure we looked weird to him. I felt sorry for the poor kids, since he was a son of Athena. The dad narrowed his eyes.

"Who are you?" he asked. I stepped forward. Might as well tell him the truth, his kid was a half-blood anyway.

"Your Michael's father?" I asked slowly. He nodded.

"Yeah, where is he?" Great. He didn't know his kid was killed. There was no easy way to say it so I just said it.

"He's dead," I said, dipping my head slightly in respect, "I'm sorry." The guy took it well, but I'm sure he would break when we left.

"Your half-bloods then?" He asked after a few minutes silence. I nodded.

"I'm Nico, Son of Hades," I said, "That's Percy son of Poseidon, Annabeth daughter of Athena and Emery daughter of…," I trailed off, looking at her, she nodded.

"…daughter of Artemis," I finished. The dad looked at Emery, obviously surprised but didn't say anything, then he looked at Annabeth. I figured he would, after all she was his sons sister. He nodded, satisfied and we left, getting back into the car.

"Nico," Annabeth said, "Why did he look at me like that?"

"Because his son's mother was Athena," I said. Her eyes widened slightly then she looked away.

We continued our road trip to California. After a while we stopped at Cici's Pizza to get food and take a bathroom break then we were on the road again. It was the same old stuff. Streets, cars, jerks that shouldn't be driving, fighting stay monsters. You know, the usual. Since we couldn't find a hotel, we stopped at one of those places where you can park and stay the night in the car. So, that's what we did. Percy and Annabeth just leaned their chairs back and went to sleep. For me and Emery it was more complicated, but we got it to work. I actually slept pretty good. I just hoped that Thalia and her friend were ok.


	7. Chapter 7

**Heyyy, I know I've said this, but thanks again for viewing my story, it means a lot to me. But, pleeeaaassseee review, I would like to know what you guys think of my story and maybe things I need to change. Sorry I didn't update in a day or so, we got some severe storms and I couldn't use the computer.**

_Why give up?_

_Why give in?_

_It's not enough, it never is_

_So I will go on Until the End._

_~Until the End, Breaking Benjamin_

_**Chapter 7**_

__I woke up with a major crick in my neck. That's what using the door arm rest thing as a pillow gets me. I glanced up front and Percy and Annabeth were still asleep, I looked over next to me and Emery was gone. I sat up quickly and got out of the car. I sighed when I saw her sitting on the curb by the road. I walked over and sat next to her.

"How long have you been up?" I asked, kicking an empty soda can into the street.

"Maybe an hour," she said, "I couldn't sleep." She looked at me.

"Nico?"

"Hmm?"

"Do you think we can get Thalia and her friend back to camp alive?" She asked, "I mean if there are other half-bloods there, and a fight does break out, we'd be outnumbered." I nodded, seeing her point.

"I think we can," I said, slowly, thinking about it, "at least, I wanna try." Emery nodded.

"Are Roman demigods stronger than Greeks?" She finally asked. I shrugged.

"I dunno, I've never fought one aside from yesterday."

We talked for a while then we went and woke Percy and Annabeth up. After that we found a place to eat breakfast. We sat around a table and ordered.

"How close are we to California?" I asked.

"Just a day or so," Annabeth said.

"Good." Percy looked at Emery curiously.

"What are you staring at?" He asked. Emery held a finger to her lips.

"This lady," She said quietly, "She's been staring at me ever since we got here." I leaned backwards slightly, following Emery's gaze and there was this lady sitting alone at this table facing us. She was in her forties or fifties. I wanted to go over and say 'what the crap are you looking at?' but before I could Emery was already walking over. I have Percy a questioning look and he just shrugged and watched. She strutted over, her boots thudding slightly on the ground. I couldn't hear the conversation, but Emery eventually made a confused face. The lady gestured for her to sit down, when Emery declined she insisted and Emery sat across from her on the table.

They talked for a while then our food came and I walked over.

"Hey, your foods here," I told her, eyeing the lady, she just smiled. I scowled at her. Emery nodded.

"I'll see you later," Emery said, standing. The lady smiled sweetly at her.

"Have fun with your boyfriend," She said. I rolled my eyes and turned and walked back to our table, Emery following. Once we were at the table I looked at Emery.

"Boyfriend?" I asked. Emery shrugged.

"All I said was that we were friends," she said around her food. I gave the lady a weird look then went back to my food.

"So who was she?" Annabeth asked.

"Apparently, she used to work with my dad," Emery explained, "And used to babysit me whenever he needed."

"And she recognized you?" Percy asked.

"Yep."

"How'd you get into talking about Nico?" Annabeth asked.

"She asked where I knew him," Emery said.

"Why?" I asked. Emery shrugged.

"She had some sort of interest in you because she kept asking me questions on you." This surprised me and sorta creeped me out. I was used to having people stay away from me and I liked it that way. I didn't need a forty or fifty year old lady stalking me. We finished eating and got back in our car. We got a few weird looks. Apparently it was weird for a teenager to own a mustang.

While we were driving I was thinking about how we could go about getting Thalia and her friend off of the island. But, it was sorta hard since we didn't know what would happen when we got there. Would we run into half-bloods and get into a huge fight? Or, would we just run into some monsters or something? I sighed heavily, which caught everyone's attention.

"What's up?" Emery asked.

"I was trying to think of some sort of plan for when we got there," I said, looking out my window.

"Come up with anything?"

"No. It's sorta hard when you don't know what'll happen."

"Don't worry about it," Percy said, "We'll get Thalia and whoever her friend is back to camp." I just nodded, not really totally confident.

****Time Skip****

We _finally_ reached that sign that says "Welcome to California." I was wondering if we would ever get there. Nothing much happened during the few days it took to get here. Basically the same thing repeating itself. But my mind kept going back to those two Roman Half-Bloods. Why the heck were they following us? Were they assigned to follow and kill us or just get information or what? It bothered me a lot, sure they were nice after Annabeth intervened, but I seriously doubt they'll be nice if we ever run into them again. We drove to the coastline and then we parked the car and we hung out at the beach for a while, at least until we figured out how we were gonna get to the island. Percy fiddled around in the water. Annabeth walked up to him to ask him something and he splashed her and she got mad at him. She chased him around the beach and they got some weird looks from other people there. It was pretty funny. I was sitting just out of range of the waves hitting the beach, watching them. Then I looked out on the ocean. I narrowed my eyes when I saw something funny. After a few seconds I realized it was someone's life force fading, and fading fast. I stood and ran over to Percy and Annabeth.

"Percy," I said when I got close enough, "There's someone dying out in the ocean." Percy immediately became serious.

"Where?" He asked. I pointed.

"Over there," I said. Percy walked over to the water then disappeared under it. By now people were watching. I could hear them whispering, wondering what the heck he was doing. I would've gone out and got him on my own, but Percy would be a heck of a lot faster than I would. Emery jogged over to me.

"What's going on? What's Percy doing?" She asked.

"I saw some person dying," I told her, "He's going to get him."

"You saw him dying?" She asked. I could tell she was confused about what I meant. I sighed.

"I saw his life force fading fast." She nodded, understanding now.

After a few slow minutes, Percy appeared a good few feet from the shore holding some kid. I watched as he went under, no doubt to use his powers. Few seconds later he walked up on the shore, carrying a five year old. People gasped and ran up to him. Then a couple shoved their way through, probably his parents. Percy brought the kid over to me and Emery and Annabeth, his parents following. Honestly, I didn't know what he was doing bringing him to me; all I could do was tell him if he was dead or not. I looked at him and mouthed that he wasn't dead and he nodded. Annabeth did CPR and the kid coughed up water. The mother hugged Percy, saying thanks for saving him. Then, good old Percy pointed at me, saying that I was the one who spotted him. She walked over and hugged me to.

"Thank you," She said.

"No prob," I said, sorta shyly. I am _not_ used to having that happen. The kid also thanked us. Then they walked back to their little spot on the beach.

We all sat around in a circle. I was sitting with my knees drawn up to my chest, my chin resting on them.

"So, how are we gonna get to the island," Emery asked, "Are we gonna use a boat and let Percy guide it?"

"I think that'll take too long," Percy said. I nodded.

"Nico, do you think you could shadow travel?" Annabeth asked. I considered it.

"I could, I just don't know how far it is," I said, "So, I couldn't say how much it would drain me." They nodded.

"Would you be willing to do it thought?" Percy asked.

"Yeah." So, we waited until night fell and then we all held hands. Sorta awkward. Then I drew on my powers and the shadows thickened. I closed my eyes and thought 'Impervia Island' then we all disappeared.

Even though shadow travelling can be very useful, the landing is always bad. It's like being dropped from twenty feet in the air from the sky. Anyways, we all landed very heavily on the island. I landed on my side and rolled a little ways, once I had stopped rolling I moved onto my back.

"Ugh….No matter how many times I shadow travel, the landing always gets me," I groaned. I heard Percy groan and looked for him. When I didn't see him I stood and walked around. I soon found him in some sort of ditch. He coughed and stood.

"You gotta tell your dad to remake that technique and make the landing softer," he told me. I laughed.

"I'll let him know."

"Uh, guys, hello?" I looked around for the voice and saw Emery in a tree…well a palm tree. I didn't even realize that those things had branches. I tried not to laugh.

"Uh, Emery how'd you get up there?" I asked, containing my laugh. She glared at me.

"Its not funny doof," she said, "Just how do I get down?"

"Can you climb down?" Percy asked. Emery looked at the drop down then back at Percy, her facial expression obviously saying that she didn't wanna risk it.

"If I wanna break something right when we're close to Thalia yeah," She said harshly. I looked around for any way to help her get down. I didn't find anything.

"Well…I could climb up….but that wouldn't do any good," I said. I know it's sorta not funny but I really was trying not to laugh unsuccessfully.

"Nico, well you get a grip and find away to get me down!" She yelled at me. I nodded, smiling like an idiot.

"Emery, I don't think there's anything high enough to reach you," Annabeth said. Emery sighed and repositioned herself then studied how far down it was. She jumped and when she landed rolled to avoid injuring herself.

"Now that wasn't that bad was it?" I said. Emery just eyed me darkly. I just shrugged innocently.

We walked around the island, following this path that led into some woods. We looked around but couldn't find anything remotely like a building.

"Do you know how old this place is?" I asked, "It could be covered in vines and stuff." Annabeth shook her head.

"No," She said, "I wish I had a map of the island itself." That would indeed help. As I looked around I saw a snake crawling around a branch, but I just kept walking.

"Be careful where you step because you could st—"She broke off as there was a weird noise and a yelp. Annabeth turned and ran back the way we came towards the noise, me and Emery following.

"Oh my God! Percy are you ok?" Annabeth said, I sped up my pace and skidded on the ground when I reached her. There was this pit with a lot of spikes in it with Percy inside it. He had one of the spikes sticking out of his thigh.

"Do I look ok?" He snapped. I scanned the walls of the pit, looking for a safer way in. I found one and walked over to it and sat on the ground then jumped in. Once down there, I realized that Percy had more of those things in him he had just managed to get them out.

"You'd think you would have screamed a lot louder than you did," Emery commented. I could tell she was a little freaked but she did a good job of hiding it.

"Oh, that was from the ground breaking," Percy said through gritted teeth. Now, he was in a weird position. His left leg was punctured with the spike while his other was not injured at all, which he was lucky for. His back had a few puncture wounds, but they weren't that deep and could be dealed with later. Percy's hand was bleeding, I'm assuming because it landed on the spike, right now he was gripping the handle part, trying to hold himself up. Percy's right foot was resting on the ground. Really the only thing preventing him from climbing out was his thigh. I grimaced at the thought trying to get it out.

"Nico, can you get his leg off the spike?" Annabeth asked. I'll give her credit for not freaking over her boyfriends predicament. I shook my head.

"I would not recommend pulling the spike out or pulling the leg off….It would hurt," I said.

"Who the heck would put a pit in the forest on an island though?" Emery asked.

"Probably who ever has Thalia and her friend," Percy said. He was sweating and his body was tense. I ran my hand through my hair. This was not going to be easy. I knew what I had to do, but I hated doing it on my cousin.

"Nico." I looked at Percy.

"Just so _something_ to help me out here," He said.

I nodded and took an actual knife I had out of my backpack. He eyed it but didn't say anything, I think he knew what I intended doing. Luckily, the spike wasn't in the middle of his thigh it was more of to the side. But, basically I had to cut the skin by the spike so I could slip the spike out of his leg. I sighed. You'd think I'd be used to stuff like this, but it's a lot different doing it on someone you know and care about than a stranger. Anyways, I proceeded to cut the skin. I was trying to do it fast so it didn't hurt as much. Percy gritted his teeth but didn't make any noises. Once I was done, Percy moved off the spike, hopping to get used to not using that leg. I climbed out of the pit then helped him up and Annabeth tied some cloth around the wound tightly to stop the bleeding. She helped him stand and me and Emery exchanged looks. I could tell she was thinking the same thing as me. How are we gonna be able to fight those half-bloods if Percy's down?

"You sure your ok?" I asked him. He nodded. I put the knife back in its case and back into my backpack.

We walked for a while, our pace slowed a bit because of Percy's leg. But I didn't wanna rush him since the injury was pretty bad. I could tell he felt sorta bad about the whole thing but it wasn't his fault. Emery found a good place to camp and we stopped to rest. While we were all sitting around Emery looked at Percy.

"How'd you fall in the pit anyway?" She asked.

"I saw something funny on a tree, like some sort of symbol so I walked over and while I was looking at it by my foot stepped on some leaves and I lost my balance and fell down a hill and landed in the pit," He told her.

"What was the symbol?" Annabeth asked. Percy grabbed a big leaf from the ground and a charred stick from the fire we had started and drew the symbol on the leaf.

Annabeth examined the symbol.

"Do you know what it means?" I asked, looking at the symbol strangely.

"No, I've never seen it before," She said, "But it's getting late, we should put out the fire and get some rest." We all agreed and I put out the fire with some of the water in my water bottle.

"I'll take first watch," Emery said. I nodded and lied down with my head on my backpack. The last thing I thought was that those half-bloods were going to pay for that stupid pit and what it did to my cousin.


	8. Chapter 8

**Please review it, I wanna know how I'm doing on the most recent chaps, I know you guys like the first few chapters :P**

_**Chapter 8**_

I watched as the sun rose above the horizon. I had taken the last watch at around 4:15. I jumped down from the tree I was sitting in and looked at Percy, Annabeth and Emery.

"Hey! Wake up!" I yelled. Emery threw something at me. Typical. I threw it back.

"You can't sleep late on quests," I said, walking over and grabbing her upper arms and pulling her up.

"Fine," she mumbled, "I'm awake." Percy and Annabeth were getting up. Guess they were used to it.

We had a seriously tiny breakfast then started walking around the woods again.

"Where would an abandoned building be anyway?" I asked. Nobody answered. They apparently know as much as I do about this stuff. I was walking behind Emery when she held her hand. I stopped giving her a weird look as her bow appeared in her hands and she jogged into the woods silently. A few seconds later there was a thump and she reappeared, holding an arrow with blood all over the tip.

"Scout," she said. I nodded.

"How'd you see it?" Percy asked. She gave Percy an exasperated look.

"I've been hunting before with my dad, and shooting and archery," She said, "I'm used to spotting far away targets." Percy just blinked and we kept going. I led the way after that and we got to a medium sized river (is there a such thing?) and past that was a valley.

"Percy?" I said looking at him. He stepped forward and parted the river and we walked across, once we were across he released it and it went back to flowing normally. We made our way down the hill. It must have rained recently because it was slippery from mud. Annabeth pointed at something and I looked to where she was pointing at.

"Freaking finally!" I said. The abandoned building was in the distance, covered in vines and ivy.

"Get down!" Percy said pulling Annabeth down into the grass, which was just long enough for us to hide. Sorta.

A four wheeler ran passed us, holding two half-bloods. I didn't recognize either of them, both of them were guys though. They stopped a few feet away.

"So, what'd Max say about that group of half-bloods Alex and Matt ran into?" One of them said, looking over his shoulder at the person sitting behind him.

"She just said that one was a son of Pluto and one might be a daughter of Minvera," the other dude said. (**A/N: Minerva is the roman version of Athena). **The guy driving sighed.

"Pluto? Seriously?"

"Yeah I know, he's the leader to."

"They obviously mean trouble then." They started off again, splattering mud everywhere, including on us. They must have been on patrol because they did a full sweep of the valley then headed back to the building.

We all stood again.

"They seemed worried about you Nico," Emery said, looking at me. I nodded. I was used to it. I was a child of one of the Big Three anyway.

"We're gonna have to be careful on the way over there," I said.

"It might be best to see if we can go around back," Annabeth said, "It might bring us closer to where ever there keeping Thalia and her friend, cells are usually kept in the back of buildings." We all agreed and started around the left side of the valley. By evening we were a good distance behind the place. I could see the place clearly now. It was huge, biggest building I've ever seen.

"This has got to be an abandoned army camp or something," I said quietly, "This place is gigantic."

"Yeah, finding Thalia is a piece of cake," Emery said, her voice thick with sarcasm. I smirked.

"Let's just focus on getting in," I said, then I looked at Annabeth, "Well, Percy can't call you Wise Girl for nothing." She gave me a look, which I just smiled at. She then turned her attention to the place. There was huge building holding four wheelers, rhino's (and, no , not like the animal, the vehicle), and other stuff. The other stuff being those cart things that are pulled by horses, and mythical creatures. Then there was a weaponry. If I have to tell you what that is your all idiots and hopeless.

To our right was places to train, much like the stuff at camp half-blood, but not as big, more like a tinier version. Finally, right in front of us, just a little ways ahead, was the place where they stayed and kept hostages. At least that's what I'm assuming. Annabeth sighed.

"I don't see any easy way into this place," She said, "There are guards on all sides, along with some on the roof. So we'll most likely be spotted, unless we go in at night and you can make us invisible." I groaned but nodded. So, we waited until night fall. During that waiting period we had to skirt around some patrols, which wasn't too much of a problem. I thickened the shadows and we all approached the building. I signaled for everyone to be as quite as possible. Once we were sorta close to the building I heard a hissing noise and ducked instinctively, drawing my sword. Of course, ducking made me lose my concentration, and my power of the shadows ceased. A group of seven half-bloods surrounded us, three of those were around me, swords aimed at my throat.

I looked at all of them in turn and parried one of the swords to the side, ducking at the same time to miss the other two. Of course, they all struck at me at once, they were pretty coordinated with one another, unlike most people. I blocked all the swords as best I could but, even though I was one of the best swordsmen in the Greek camp, I had some difficulty. I risked a glance at Percy, who was holding his own against his opponent, and doing good for a guy with injured leg. It was stupid for me to glance at him though because a fourth guy struck at me from behind, hitting me hard between the shoulder blades and kicking at the back of my knees at the same time, making me fall. I cursed in Greek as a sword was thrust against my throat and he grabbed my upper arm and dragged me to my feet. Emery and the others had stopped fighting, looking at me like I was supposed to tell them to do something. I ignored them and looked down at the sword at my throat. It was black, like mine. I followed the blade to its owner. The guy was maybe a few years older than me. His hair was shorter and spiked somewhat. The guy defiantly wasn't Italian. He smirked as I sized him up. I was seriously thinking about striking out at the guy. I looked over at Percy, silently telling him to take Annabeth and Emery and get out of here, hoping he got the message. Luckily, he did and started slowly retreating. The other half-bloods noticed and started towards them but one of the seven demigods that didn't participate in the fight stepped forward.

"Leave them," She said, "We'll deal with them later." I have to admit, I was slightly surprised that my sibling, wasn't in charge. He certainly seemed like a leader-type.

Percy didn't like the idea of leaving me, I could tell but he did as I asked and left with Annabeth and Emery. The female that spoke sized me up.

"Well, Tyrell, looks like you're not the only son of Pluto," She said. Tyrell huh?

"Your pretty good for fifteen," He said, looking at me. I just stared at him, my eyes burning. My knuckles were white from gripping my sword. In one quick move I swatted his sword away from my throat with mine. Tyrell retaliated swiftly though, slashing at me. I blocked and shoved forward, my whole weight bearing down on my sword. He took a step backwards then twisted his wrist, so the sword tip was angled downwards and hooked around the hilt of my sword. Then he raised his foot and kicked me in the chest. I flew a few feet then crashed into the ground. Then, one of the other half-bloods decided to get involved. I would have gotten up but the other guy put his foot on my chest, hard. I growled and kicked the side of his knee. I heard a crack and the guy winced and moved away, like I thought he would. I got up and advanced on Tyrell. We exchanged a few blows. Then I felt someone yank on the collar of my shirt, hard. I stumbled backwards, coughing.

"Chill kid, just come peacefully and we won't have to use force," She said.

"Oh yeah, like you're _so_ much older than I am," I snapped, my old attitude returning.

"Drop the sword," She said.

"And if I don't?" I asked. She grabbed my arm and pulled it backwards, on hand on my wrist the other on my shoulder. I could feel the bone threatening to break.

I gritted my teeth but never released my sword. I know, the sword would just return to me later, but I was always stubborn. I thought about Thalia and our mission and decided I didn't need a broken shoulder if we ever started a fight trying to get out of there, so I dropped the sword and she lowered my arm and put hand-cuffs on.

"That wasn't so hard, now was it?" She said. I glared at her over my shoulder at her tone. She nodded at Tyrell and he took my upper arm and led my roughly towards the building, leaving my sword there. Once in the building the first room was a filled with tables. There were a few half-bloods some talking, others eating. One group was sitting with a map spread out in front of them. The room was dimly lit, wonder why. Tyrell kept walking and turned down a hall that branched off from the table room. Along the hall were a few doors , they held the symbols of individual gods and goddess, so I'm assuming they were there version of cabins. He didn't take me into any of them, he just continued down the hall. We reached the end of the hall and there was a path that went to the left and right. Towards the left were the restrooms, further down past them was a door that had WEAPONRY on it.

Tyrell turned right and walked down the hall.

"What do you want?" I asked. Tyrell smirked.

"I wanna know why you were trying to sneak into this building," He said.

"Can't tell you that, sorry," I said, not really sorry. He didn't answer and stopped at a door and knocked. There was a thump, like someone jumping down from the top bunk of a bed then a muffled voice.

"What?"

"Open the door Max," Tyrell said. The door opened a crack and one of the guys on the four wheeler looked at Tyrell then me.

"Who's this?" Max asked.

"One of the kids trying to get into the building," Tyrell explained, pushing me towards him, "Talk to him." Talk to me? What you afraid I'm gonna get lonely? Tyrell walked off and Max took my arm and pulled me into the room. The room was about the size of an average game room in a house and had one or two beds, but they didn't look comfortable. Max undid the hand cuffs and I sat on the edge of one of the beds. He set the hand cuffs down and sat on the floor in front of me.

"What's your name?" He asked. Ok? These guys don't seem that mean…sorta weird.

"Why should I tell you?" I asked, eyeing him darkly.

Max smirked. I just glared at him. I was pissed and worried about my friends.

"Just wondering," He said, "Why're you here?" I sighed. This guy was trying to be friendly.

"I can't tell you that, genius."

"And, he has a attitude," Max said.

"Why'd Tyrell bring me here instead of where ever you keep hostages?" I asked.

"Because you're not officially a hostage," Max said. I made a face. Honestly? I try to sneak into your building, break one of your peoples knees, refused to go into the building willingly and I'm not officially a hostage? Wow.

Max could apparently tell that I thought that was weird and laughed.

"So, I'm guessing your Greek?" He asked. I nodded. He made a face like he was thinking of something then stood and walked over to the door.

"Make yourself at home, do whatever," he said then opened the door, walked out then locked it on the outside. I sighed and lied on my back in the bed. Great. Now how was I supposed to get out of here, find everyone else and then figure out where the heck there keeping Thalia? Despite how much I tried not to, I fell asleep.

**Emery's POV**

I followed Percy and Annabeth until they stopped far enough away from the building.

"We have to go get Nico," I said, bending over and putting my hands on my knees, panting. We had run a long time, I'm surprised Percy was able to pull it off with his leg in the condition it was in.

"I know, but I doubt he wants us to," Percy said. I glared.

"Who cares if he wants us to? He's the leader of the freaking quest! We can't return to camp without him," I said. I could tell Percy agreed with me. He nodded.

"Then how do we get in?" He said, looking at Annabeth, who was sitting on the ground, thinking.

"First, I think we should iris message Nico," She said, "Unless the blindfolded him he could tell us where he's at." Me and Percy nodded and he reached into his pocket and drew out a drachma.

"Don't we need water?" I asked. Annabeth nodded.

"I saw a small stream a little ways back the way we came, "She said, "And if we still have some water bottles I think we might be able to do it."

Annabeth led the way towards the stream. Once we got there, I took out one of those water bottles where you can squeeze it and it'll squirt water. I squirted the water so it made a arc and ran into the stream. Percy through the coin in and said the appropriate words and the message shimmered. There was Nico, he was in some sort of room lying on a bed sleeping. What the crap was he doing sleeping in a time like this?

"Nico!" I yelled. He jumped slightly then saw us.

"Hey," he said. I rolled my eyes.

"Where are you?" I asked.

"I'm in a room," He said, "With beds and some food…Guess they brought food while I was sleeping."

"Why were you sleeping?" Annabeth said, irritated. He gave her an innocent look.

"I wasn't trying to!" He protested, "I just did."

"Duh," I said, "How can we find you?" He gave me a serious look.

"Forget about me, just find Thalia and her friend, I'll figure out how to get out," he said.

"Look, we aren't gonna leave you," I said, "How can we find you?" Nico sighed.

"Well, the way the guy took me in I wouldn't do," He said, "Because the first room has tables where all the half-bloods eat at or talk or whatever."

"Like Camp Half-Blood?" Percy asked.

"Sorta, but I'm guessing that there's usually at least a few people there," Nico said, "Since it was late when we tried getting in." We all nodded, it made sense.

"So, how are we supposed to find you?" Annabeth asked.

"The room I'm in is in a hall way, that has restrooms and a door that leads to the weaponry," Nico explained.

"Ok, anything else?" He shook his head.

"If you get into the room with all the tables there's a hall way that branches off which has all these rooms with the symbols of the individual gods and goddess, if you go down that hall way you'll get to the one I'm in." Annabeth nodded and he said to be careful and then disconnected it.

We started back towards the building. I just hoped that Thalia and her friend were ok.


	9. Chapter 9

**Thanks to I'm A Weirdo Deal With It for reviewing I'm glad you liked the chapter. Please review and view, it's appreciated ;) I know its shorter than the others, but its 2:18 AM so yeah… **

_Only the strongest will survive,_

_Lead me to heaven when we die_

_I am the shadow on the wall_

_I'll be the one to save us all_

_~Blow Me Away, Breaking Benjamin_

_**Chapter 9**_

**Nico's POV**

I looked up when I heard a click outside and the door to the room I was in opened. The female leader of the group that captured me entered. I eyed her warily.

"Max tells me you're Greek," She said. I didn't say anything, I just looked at her. I didn't feel right here.

"Look, I'm not as friendly as Max." I snorted.

"I don't care if you're friendly or not," I said darkly, "I would prefer it if you weren't so friendly." The girl cocked her eyebrow.

"Is that so?" I smiled, but wasn't in the least bit friendly. Not remotely. I'm a son of Hades, so I'm used to being despised and hated. And I'm also used to feeling anger towards people and having a strong killer instinct. But, for this girl, whoever she is, I felt that same killer instinct but a whole lot stronger. It was sorta weird, but I embraced it anyway.

"What's your name?" She asked.

"It doesn't matter who I am," I said, standing, "You already know what you need to know." She obviously I was officially a hostage then because she put her hand on the hilt of the sword she had with her. I slipped my hand into my pocket, where my sword had reappeared to. In one smooth move, she drew her sword and slashed at me. I drew my sword and blocked. I heard the sounds of fighting outside, so I assumed that Percy and everyone else had gotten inside. I shoved forward with my sword, leaning most of my weight into it. She stepped sideways, making me stumble forwards slightly. The girl took the chance and swung her sword downwards at my back. I whirled, falling on the ground and blocking her sword at the same time. She smirked. I immediately knew I was in a bad situation. Never. Ever. Fall on the ground in a fight with someone. She hacked at me with her sword. She was _way_ stronger than she looked. I blocked as best I could while moving backwards. Then I ran into something. Great. I just _had_ to fall on the ground. The girl locked our swords together then kicked my wrist hard. And I mean hard. I dropped my sword because of it, that's how hard. She kicked it farther away then stabbed my forearm. I grimaced and kicked her in the chest and she stumbled backwards. I quickly moved over to my sword then stood.

She stood and glared at me. I just stared at her, my sword raised. My arm hurt like heck, but that was the last thing that was on my mind. I struck at her and we exchanged blows. We were evenly matched, which sucked. I shoved her backwards with my sword then ran out of the room, glancing frantically around. No, I wasn't running away from a girl. I just wanted to get out of that room. The only other room I found, aside from the restrooms, was the weaponry. It wasn't the best place, but I went inside. Soon after, she followed. I walked around quickly. I heard the sound of a gun being shot and I ducked behind a table, knocking it on its side for better cover, the bullet just missing my arm. I grabbed the nearest shot gun and loaded it and returned fire. Believe it or not, this was my first time actually using a gun. We shot at each other and I was forced to get out from behind the table, since it was riddled with bullet holes. I half crouched and ran towards a metal topped table. As I was running I felt a bullet hit my shin, hitting the bone, cracking it. I cried out, falling to the ground. I stood and limped towards the table, crouching behind it. I gritted my teeth against the pain in my leg.

I peeked over the table and saw her reloading. I aimed and shot at her. The bullet hit her shoulder and she yelped and returned fire. I fired but it missed and glanced off the steel leg of the table she was behind and hit her wrist. Now that was a lucky shot. She dropped the gun and I stood and walked towards her. If you could call it walking. Once I got to her I looked down at her. I'll give her credit for not pleading with me. I raised the gun and shot her in the heart. I whirled around, aiming the gun at the entrance to the weaponry, which was left open, when I heard footsteps. Percy was in the door way and raised his hands.

"It's me, relax," He said. I sighed and lowered the gun then sank to the ground. I set the gun on the ground and pulled my pant leg up, revealing the bullet wound. There was a bloody hole in the middle of my shin, on the side of my leg. It was bleeding badly but it wasn't the actual injury that hurt, it was the shattered bone around the bullet. It had hit the bone head on, making a mini crater. Percy had walked over and made a face at the sight of it.

"What happened?" He asked.

"What does it look like?" I snapped.

"Like you got shot." I nodded.

"It hit the bone," I said through gritted teeth.

"Ouch," Percy said. He helped me up then let me lean on him.

We walked out of the room and followed the sound of fighting. Once there, I groaned slightly. Basically, it was Emery and Annabeth against a whole lot of other half-bloods. Me and Percy exchanged looks. I pulled away from him and loaded my gun. I walked into the room and shot at whoever I saw. I killed most of them in one hit, others I had to shoot twice. I was actually surprised I was this good of a shot, but I guess it was the circumstances. I saw Emery fighting these two demigods and one was sneaking up from behind. I shot him just as she took down one of them. I guess I surprised her because she looked backwards at the dead body. Soon, I ran out of ammo. I should have grabbed another gun while I was in the weaponry but I couldn't waste time going back. So, I redrew my sword and approached someone. I could only imagine what the demigods thought of me. Some dude with a sword, a bleeding arm and a broken leg approaching them. I called up some skeletons and they surrounded a good few of the demigods. I got a weird tingling feeling in my back and whirled, just managing to block a sword. I didn't recognize the wielder. We exchanged blows for a while, and then the guy locked our swords and kicked me in the chest. I fell, gritting my teeth as I jarred my broken shin. The half-blood thrust his sword down at me; I parried and knocked his feet out from under him. Then I got on my knees and cut his throat. I glanced around. Percy was taking down tons of half-bloods, some taking longer than others. Emery was standing on one of the ceiling beams using her bow, and Annabeth was holding her own against two demigods. Then I remembered Thalia. I got to my feet and half walked half jogged over to a hallway I hadn't been down before.

I walked cautiously down the hall. After a while, the hall turned right and I peeked my head around the corning. Some ways down there was a door with a lock on it along with a two half-bloods guarding it. I stepped out into the open and the two turned towards me. One drew a sword the other took out a bow. Joy. The one with the bow released the arrow; I knocked it aside with my sword. I continued to do that until I got close enough, then he took out a dagger. Honestly? I smacked his wrist with the hilt of my sword then slashed him across the throat with my knife. The other guy struck at me. The kid had to be at least twelve. Seriously, your gonna have a twelve year old guard something? I guess it's better than battle but still. I knocked his sword out of his hand but hesitated in killing him. I sighed and knocked the kid out. Then hacked at the lock with the hilt of my sword until it broke.

I slowly opened the door and limped through. Sure enough, it was a dark hall with lots of cells. They were a lot bigger than prison cells though. I risked calling out into the hall.

"Thalia?" No one answered. I groaned inwardly and continued. I looked in every single cell until I reached one that held someone in it. It was seriously hard to see so I went to break the lock, only to find that it had already been broken. I opened the barred door and started to walk in when I heard the click of a gun being cocked. I froze. It was really convenient for it to be dark. So, I couldn't see who the heck was in front of me.

"Drop your weapon and back up against the wall," A voice said. I didn't recognize it. But I was sure it wasn't Thalia. I did as I was told. I felt someone feeling my sides and legs for any hidden weapons.

I stiffened when the person reached the bullet hole in my shin. They generally raised my pant leg then switched on a flash light and inspected it.

"Who are you?" I asked.

"Just be thankful that I actually sparred you," The person said. Ok, so it was a female by the pitch of her voice.

"Hold it," Another voice said," Shine the light on his face." The one with the flash light did so and I raised my hand to block the light from my eyes.

"Watch it," I said, my voice irritated.

"Nico?" The one without the light said. I smiled at the voice.

"Thalia? Gods, you could've recognized me earlier."

"Michele, go hit the power for the lights," Thalia said. The other girl left and after a few minutes the lights were on and I could see clearly. I blinked a few times.

"Oh my gods, it is you!" Thalia said. Gee, she was happy to see me.

"Yeah it's me."

"Annabeth said that some half-bloods were coming to get us out but she never mentioned you," Thalia said. I rolled my eyes.

"Yeah, Chiron assigned me to it," I explained. Thalia nodded then looked at my leg.

"What happened?" She asked, crouching to examine the hole.

"I got shot," I said, "Watch it! The shins broken."

"Sorry."

We walked back to the main battle. With Thalia and Michele we managed to take out most of the half-bloods. I was surprised to not run into Tyrell. I hadn't seen him throughout the whole battle. Annabeth and Percy greeted Thalia and the daughter of Zeus introduced Michele. Emery walked over to me and looked me up and down.

"Every time you get into a fight, even a small one, you always manage to get yourself hurt," She said, frowning at me.

"What can I say? It's what I do best," I said, my tone mocking a happy one. She snorted and started bandaging my arm.

"And who might you be?" Thalia asked, looking at Emery. Emery looked up and stood her bow still in her hand.

"Emery, your Thalia right?" She said.

"Yeah, Daughter of Zeus and Hunter of Artemis at your service," Thalia said, bowing. Emery smirked. Thalia straightened, smiling. Then she narrowed her eyes at her bow.

"Where'd you get that?" She asked, "It looks like ours." Emery sighed.

"My Mother gave it to me," She said. Thalia looked at Emery.

"You're Mother?" Emery nodded.

"Who's your Mother?"

"Artemis." Emery said it so bluntly that it was almost funny. But what really did it was Thalia's face. I laughed when I saw it. She glared and I just smiled.

"That's not possible," Thalia said, "Artemis made a vow not to marry."

"Well, she broke that vow and had me," Emery said, "Just ask her when she comes to Camp Half-Blood to pick you guys up."

That was basically the end of the conversation because any other questions Thalia asked Emery wouldn't answer. We took one of the vehicles in the barn-like thing and drove it across the valley. Once we got far enough we made camp. We made some food and caught up. Thalia told us how she and Michele got captured, after that it was late so we went to bed. Annabeth took the first watch. I was glad the quest was finally over. But my leg still hurt like crap.


	10. Chapter 10

**Thank you to ffsah1 for reviewing I'm glad you're enjoying my story. I have to say, I really am surprised at how popular my story is with all you guys in just a short while, I'm flattered. **

_I said I'd never let you go_

_And I never did_

_I said I'd never let you fall, and I always meant it_

_If you didn't have this chance_

_Then I never did you'll always find me _

_Right there again_

_~Have Faith In Me, A Day To Remember_

_**Chapter 10**_

"Hey Nic, wake up." Ugh. Was it seriously morning already? I opened my eyes to see Thalia crouched next to me.

"Is it morning already?" I mumbled, rubbing my face in an attempt to wake up.

"Yeah. You've been sleeping a while, lazy," She said. I glared but I didn't feel like arguing, lucky for her. I got up and ate what breakfast we had. We were close to the beach we had landed on when we first arrived. From there I would shadow travel all of us back to Camp Half-Blood. Why didn't we just do that outside of the building? You ask. Well, it's because we were all freaking tired. My shin hadn't gotten any better either. We had cleaned the bullet hole, but the bullet was still in there, since we lacked the tools to get it out. Now, if the bone weren't shattered, I would have just used a knife and made the hole bigger so I might be able to get the bullet out, but I didn't risk that now since the bone was, indeed, shattered. Thalia had given me some cloth that she had with her mini first aid kit and I had bandaged the wound tightly.

Anyways, I'm getting off track. So, we had breakfast then packed the stuff and started off towards the beach. I was actually getting worried about Emery. She was seriously quite since Thalia and Michele joined the group. I was going to ask what was up, but never really got around to it. I will ok? I'll ask her once we're alone or once everyone else was asleep. I walked behind everyone else and by midday we had reached the beach. We stood in something that resembled a circle. I say "something" because it was a seriously disfigured circle. But, that's beside the point. Percy turned towards me.

"Nico, are you sure you wanna shadow travel all the way to Camp Half-Blood?" He asked, "That's pretty far." My cousin had a point, it was pretty far. I may not have shown it, but the one from CA did take a pretty good toll on me. I wasn't totally sure I could shadow travel and get there then remain conscious.

"Unless you wanna drive all the way from CA to Camp Half-Blood again, then yes," I said. He nodded. Let the boringness of waiting till night fall commence. No seriously. It was _boring_. But, it gave me a chance to talk to Emery. I looked around for her and saw her sitting beneath the palm tree she had landed in when we first got here. I smirked at the thought then walked over.

"Hey," I said as I sat next to her.

"Hey," She said without looking at me. Ok something was seriously wrong.

"What's up?" I asked, shifting so my face was in front of hers and she was basically forced to look at me. She smiled, even thought she tried hard not to. I smirked.

"You gonna answer my question?" I asked, "Or do I have to force it out of you?" She cocked an eyebrow.

"You couldn't force anything out of me," She said cockily.

"Oh really? You wanna bet?" I asked. Now, I know you're thinking that it's not the best idea to fake bet with a girl but you know…that's me.

Emery nodded, her smile broadening. I opened my mouth to say something but she tackled me before I could. Of course, she was careful about my leg. I find it funny that she basically threatens me then when we actually start "fighting" she's careful not to hurt me. We rolled around in the sand then I pinned her.

"So, you gonna tell me what's wrong?" I asked.

"What made you think there was something wrong?" Emery asked, looking up at me.

"Because you've been seriously quite the past few days."

"Oh that," she said. I rolled my eyes.

"Yeeaahh _that_." she snorted.

"I'm usually quite around people I don't know," she said, "Sorry if I worried you."

"It's fine." I let her up and we sat and talked until night fall. We all joined hands then I summoned by powers and thought 'Camp Half-Blood' then we all disappeared into the shadows.

The good news, we got there. The bad news, it hurt like crap. Of course, it was normal for everyone else but I landed on my broken leg and made it worse. But, the good thing that came out of that was that I went unconscious from exhaustion, so I didn't really feel anything. I woke up in a comfortable bed and I almost fell asleep, it was that comfortable. But, I had a killer headache.

"Gods, my head hurts like heck," I mumbled.

"That's 'cause you hit your head on a rock when you landed from shadow travelling." I recognized Emery's voice and looked around and saw her sitting on a table nearby. She hopped down. She had changed cloths. Her pants were a silver camouflage, along with black tank top. I smiled.

"How long have you been here?" I asked. She shrugged.

"Maybe half an hour, but my dad called on my cell so I talked to him some." I nodded.

"What'd he want?"

"He just wanted to know how I was and said that it was seriously quite around the house without us." I laughed.

We walked back to my cabin and I changed cloths. My leg didn't hurt that bad, and I didn't limp as much but I still couldn't put my full weight on it. But, Chiron said that I shouldn't walk on it that often so I was basically bored most of the time. So, pretty much for most of the day I was in my cabin with Emery.

"Did Artemis come for Thalia and Michele?" I asked her. She nodded.

"Yeah. Thalia and Michele said goodbye and I talked to my Mom for a few minutes, since she had to go." I nodded. It was nice that she got to talk to her mother.

"You wanna watch a movie?" She asked.

"In case you haven't noticed, I don't have a T.V let along a DVD player," I said.

"Be right back," She said then she walked out of the cabin. After maybe ten minutes she came back with one of those portable DVD players, sodas and snacks.

I smiled and we lay down on our stomachs and watched Terminator 2 and ate the snacks and stuff. Once the move was over, it was already pretty late.

"I better go," She said, sitting up.

"K," I said while yawning at the same time. Emery rolled her eyes.

"Goodnight," She said then kissed me and ran off. I blinked, not really expecting her to kiss me. I put the portable DVD player under the bunk then went to sleep.

**A/N: I know, its shorter than the others but its 11:17 PM and I can't stay up late today I'll make the next one longer, I promise. **


	11. Chapter 11

**Hey! Well, sorry for not updating yesterday, I was at my older bros house for my mom and aunts Bday. It was fun but, in this chap there is a time skip, I'll explain what happened between in this chap. **

_What if I wanted to break_

_Laugh it all off in your face_

_What would you do?_

_What if I fell to the floor,_

_Couldn't take this anymore,_

_What would you do, do, do?_

_Come, break me down, bury me bury me_

_I am finished with you_

_~The Kill, 30 Seconds To Mars_

_**Chapter 11**_

I walked out of the dining pavilion. It had been a few months since we had rescued Thalia and Michele. My leg had healed. Thank gods because if it hadn't I think I would have died of boredom. Summer was almost over and fall was starting to come because the weather was cooling. For the first time in a while, I had actually stayed at Camp Half-Blood throughout the whole summer. Nothing really exciting happened during the few months that had passed. A few new demigods had been found and brought here. Chiron is a little worried since monsters have been more and more frequent outside of camp. I don't really see the problem but he seems to think that a war might come. I'll leave him to figure that out. I'm just here to kill the monsters and take care of the dead.

My sixteenth birth-day is coming up in late October. So, that's in three and a half weeks since it's the 1st. I don't really know if I should be happy about that or not. I looked around and realized that I had walked into the area to practice fencing. I shook my head and walked over to some of the dummies and started cutting them up with my sword, since no one else was here. After destroying or tearing the dummies up until it was worthless to use them I summoned some skeletons and sparred with them. Not much of a difference if you ask me but it was better than nothing. I beheaded one of the skeletons and turned when I heard someone yell at me. I was slightly surprised to see Travis Stall looking at me. I narrowed my eyes. Not that I had anything against the Stall brothers, it's just that they usually avoid me.

"What?" I asked, walking over.

"I need your help," He said. I scoffed. Yeah sure, like you really needed _me_.

"Where's your brother, why don't you get him," I said.

"I already did, he's doing something for me," Travis said, "I need you." I gave him a weird look.

"What is it you need?" Travis smiled.

"We're pranking the Aphrodite cabin." I smirked. Now this I could do.

"What are you guys gonna do?" I asked, sheathing my sword.

Travis explained the whole thing as we walked towards the cabins. The whole Aphrodite cabin was at the rock climbing wall. Why they bothered hanging out there when all they do is sit and talk or get half way up and just sit there complaining over a chipped nail or some other crap, I don't know. But, I had fun messing with their cabin. We spray painted the flowers they had outside, wrote some stuff on their cabin door and bunks in permanent sharpie. Then I went over with some red paint and painted a skull and cross bones on the sheets of the head person in the cabin, which by the way, was a pain but I did it anyway. So, when we were done, the cabin looked totally different. I could only imagine how the Aphrodite cabin would react. I was examining our work while Travis walked into the bathroom in the cabin.

"Hey, Emery, you done yet? They could be back soon," He said. I was slightly surprised that Emery was messing up the bathroom.

"Yeah, just let me do this one thing….," She said from the restrooms. So, naturally I walked in to see what she was doing. I laughed when I saw that she was scribbling all over the mirrors.

"What are you writing that in?" I asked. She smiled at me.

"Well, I was doing it in sharpie but then it ran out so I'm doing it in eye liner. They have a ton of it, honestly it's like they think there gonna run out in a week or something."

I walked over to where she pointed at an open cabinet. Man, she wasn't kidding. There had to be five freaking big boxes of it. Black, red, pink all the colors you can think of, they had.

"Gods, what the crap do they do with all of that?" I said, rummaging around in the cabinet. Emery laughed.

"I know right?"

"Hey! Guys, we gotta go, there coming!" Travis yelled at us.

"Alright! Just chill!" I yelled back and Emery put the eye liner on the counter then we ran out. We ran until we were a good distance away but could still see the cabin then we flopped down on the ground.

"You got the whole bathroom, right Emery?" Travis asked, looking at her. She nodded.

"Yep, whole thing. You guys got the cabin?" We both nodded and looked at their freaked out faces.

"Nico, you are aware that Drew will hate you more for painting on her sheets," Travis said.

"Yeah I know," I said, "Doesn't really matter though, I don't want her to like me anyway." He laughed then said he had to go and jogged off.

"That was fun," Emery said, smiling, "I've done that to schools and stuff but never a place where someone actually lived."

I gave her an amused look.

"You've done that kind of stuff to school?" I asked. She nodded.

"Yeah, nothing major, just spray paint and sharpie, that's one reason I was transferred to your school."

"Because you got caught?"

"Not exactly," Emery said, scrunching up her face.

"Then what?" I asked, not totally sure I wanted to know the answer.

"Well, this one girl saw me and two other people spray painting and stuff and said that she would go tell the principal," She explained, "I threatened her, which seemed scare her, and she said she wouldn't but then of course the next day she did and I messed up her locker and her desks in classes." I laughed and she just smirked.

"You've never done stuff like that?" Emery asked, lying on her back.

"No, I've wanted to but I never really gotten around to it," I said. Emery nodded then groaned when the head person in the Aphrodite cabin approached us.

She went over and they started talking...well…it was more like arguing. I only caught parts of the conversation. All I really knew was that it was about me. Not surprising. So, Drew was obviously dissing me and Emery was standing up for me. It broke out into a fight which was very amusing to watch. I never really realized how strong Emery was. Guess she held back whenever we were rough housing. Drew really didn't wanna fight but Emery was pissed so she didn't care. Emery walked back over to me satisfied and Drew strutted off with a broken nose, bruised jaw and a black eye. She sat down with a sigh.

"What was that about?" I asked.

"You." I frowned.

"Oh really? I guess I didn't catch that part," I said, mocking a confused face. Emery rolled her eyes.

"At first she was mad that I was defending you, then she figured out that I liked you and got madder," She said, then she made a face like she wasn't supposed to say that. I just cocked an eyebrow and leaned forward some. However, she was already sitting sorta close so it was kind of…I dunno…weird isn't the right word but you guys know what I mean! What made it funny was the fact that she leaned backward when I leaned forward.

"Oh really?" I said, amused.

Emery made a weird face.

"Yeah….," she said. I smirked.

"You know, I sorta already figured you liked me," I said. Emery nodded.

"Yep, and you like me," She said, a smug look on her face. Now it was my turn to make a weird face.

"Whatever made you think that?" She laughed.

"Because you make a funny face whenever I kiss you," She said. I glared at her.

"Alright just don't rub it in my face."

"K," She said and lied down on her stomach. We talked for a while then the dinner bell rang and we headed towards the dining pavilion. We ate then Chiron announced that it was time for Capture the Flag. It was Hades, Artemis, Apollo, Hermes, Hephaestus and Athena versus all the other Gods/Goddess that I didn't mention.

Annabeth was appointed leader. No brainer there. She told me to guard the flag, which was put as far from water as possible, since Percy was on the other team. Guarding the flag with me was one of her siblings. Everyone else was sent to their spots and me and this other dude who I don't recognize went to the flag. Chiron yelled for everyone to begin and demigods ran everywhere. The sounds of fighting echoed through the woods. A few monsters popped up here and there, they were taken down quickly though. Soon a few half-bloods approached the flag. I was hidden in the shadows. When the two half-bloods tried to take the flag I jumped out from behind the rock I was behind, landing between her and the flag.

The girl glared at me then struck out. We exchanged blows. I smirked as she tried in vain to get to the flag. I could tell that she was a daughter of Ares, since she was at least somewhat skilled with a blade. Pretty soon I took unarmed her and knocked her down. Then she took out a knife and stood, lashing out at me. I dodged the knife then wacked her wrist with my sword, making her drop the weapon. I heard a thump and knew that the son of Athena had taken down his opponent to. I looked around and saw Percy fighting Conner Stall.

"Hey watch out!" I whirled around right as some guy tackled me. I fell to the ground with a grunt with the guy on top of me. Now, this whole thing was a game, but when that guy tackled me, I forgot that. Oops. I punched him across the face and he went sideways and I got up.

Then of course, the dude got mad at me and struck at me with his fist. I dodged and grabbed his shirt and pulled him towards me, bringing my knee up to his gut. He growled and shoved my chest, making me fall backwards, then kicked me in the face. Then I got pissed. I stood and punched his nose, breaking it. The guy tackled me again and we rolled around on the ground. He pinned me and punched my face a couple of times. I shoved him to the side and punched him a few times (you seeing a pattern yet?). By now, most of camp was watching, some yelling at us to fight (unless I'm mistaken, we're already doing that), others calling for help. The son of Athena that had yelled at me to watch out was just standing there, surprised. Then Percy came over and grabbed me, dragging me away from the dude. Annabeth did the same for the other guy. I struggled, kicking and yanking at my arms.

"Let me go!" I yelled. I don't really know what got into me, but I actually struck out at Percy. Luckily for me, he just tightened his grip on my arms and didn't strike back.

Chiron walked up in his centaur form and eyed both of us angrily.

"What's the meaning of this?" He asked. I just glared and didn't say anything. Chiron looked at the other kid.

"Josh?" He asked, obviously expecting an answer. Josh looked at Chiron.

"I just tackled him and he punched me," He said, "I wasn't trying to start an actual fight."

"Nico..?" Chiron asked, looking at me. To be totally honest, I really don't know why I punched this Josh. I just felt this anger, like the guy did something in his past that I personally didn't know about but my heart did or something. Weird I know, but that's all I can think of to describe it. I shook my head, grinding my teeth. Chiron called the game off and he told me to go to my cabin. It reminded me of a little kid being sent to his room for disobeying. I didn't go straight to my cabin thought. First I went to the restrooms and swished water in my mouth then spit into the sink. I ton of blood came out. So, I stuck my finger in my mouth and felt around my teeth. Sure enough, there was a tooth missing. I looked down at the sink and there was the tooth. I looked like a molar. Oh well.

I walked back to my cabin and took a dirty shirt and wiped the blood off my face. Why didn't I do that at the bathroom? Because they didn't have any napkins. I could've used toilet paper but I didn't want to. I was actually pretty beat up. The kid was stronger than he looked. My eye hurt like crap and was swollen a little, my nose was bleeding and hurt somewhat but it wasn't terribly broken. To go along with all this, my mouth and lip was bleeding and I had some scratches on my face. I sighed and flopped down on my bed. Then there was a knock on my door. I groaned.

"It's open!" I yelled. I heard footsteps enter the cabin. There were to people as far as I could tell.

"Are you ok Nic?" I groaned inwardly at Emery's voice.

"Define 'Ok,'" I said, my voice irritated. She sighed and sat on the bed opposite me.

"Are you hurt bad?" She rephrased the question. I didn't answer.

"Come on, Nico." A new voice said. Percy. I immediately felt guilty for hitting him with my elbow.

I felt someone's hand on my shoulder, rolling me over since my back was facing them. Emery looked taken aback at my appearance. What'd ya expect? I just frowned at her.

"Don't tell me you've never seen a black eye before," I growled. Emery glared at me.

"Your nose and lip are bleeding and your nose is broken," She said.

"Thank you for clearing that up," I said, my voice thick with sarcasm.

"Nico, what's up?" Percy asked. I looked at my cousin.

"Nothing."

"You look better without all the blood on your face," He commented. I scowled at him.

"I know something's wrong Nico," He said, looking at me knowingly.

"Well you just get off my case?" I yelled, standing. Percy stood and tried to say something but I shoved him back down on the bed and stalked out of the cabin.

I walked to Half-Blood hill and sat next to Thalia's tree. The clouds covered the moon, so the night was especially dark. I sighed. I suddenly just felt seriously alone and judged. The fact that people kept bothering me about what happened during capture the flag didn't help any. I drew my knees up to my chest and rested my forehead on them, enclosing my legs with my arms. I shut my eyes. I seriously wanted to break right then and I have no clue why. I sat like that for a few minutes then I thought 'New York' and I disappeared into the shadows.

**A/N: I have no clue when Nico's birth day is, I just made it up…just saying. Please review ;)**


	12. Chapter 12

**Heya! Here's chapter 12, please review **

_Come on, come on_

_You know this isn't what we _

_Planned on_

_Come on, come on_

_Tell me we'll be ok_

_We'll be ok_

_Let's go back, let's go back_

_To a time where I still felt I had _

_A family_

_~Holding It Out For the Underground, A Day To Remember_

_**Chapter 12**_

__I sat on the curb by the basket ball hoops next the school. I had returned to New York last night around midnight. I stayed up the rest of the night because I wasn't tired. Right now I regretted that. My eye was still black and swollen but didn't really hurt; I'm guessing it looked worse than it felt. I had gone to some drug store and got some patch thing for my nose, to keep it in place after I had fixed it. What really hurt the most right now was my freaking body. My arms were somewhat stiff. I had thought about what had happened and why the heck I had started the fight but couldn't think of a reason or what I got so mad about. Someone swore and I looked up. These two guys were in a fight with three other guys. Well, it looked like a fight would start soon enough; they were yelling and taunting each other. I looked away and stood then walked down the small hill towards the street. I walked down the street with my hands in my pockets. I got a few looks and whispers from people who saw my appearance.

"Are you alright man?" One said. I just looked at him darkly and kept going. I found the apartment complex that I stay in and walked into the building.

Once I got to my room I stuck the keys in and unlocked the door. I plopped down on the bed and switched on the T.V. I surfed the channels and settled on this stupid drama, but it was the only really good thing on. After a half hour of watching the drama I fell asleep. I awoke to the sound of someone pounding on my door and yelling for me to open it. I growled and looked at the clock. 7:15. What the heck could someone want at seven freaking fifteen? Then I realized that I had slept from 3:00 in the afternoon to 7:15, geez I guess I was more tired than I thought. I got out of the bed and walked over to the door. I opened to door as far as the chain lock would allow.

"What?" I asked my voice irritated.

"Could you turn your T.V down?" The dude asked. You woke me up for _that_? Gods. I just shut the door and turned off the T.V. Since I had nothing better to do, I just walked out of the apartment and headed towards my school even though I would be seriously early. I put the head phones to my Ipod in and turned it up. It was a cloudy day and seriously cold for fall. I zipped up my hoodie and put the hood up. Once I reached the school I sat in the grass, my back against a tree. I just listened to my Ipod and looked around.

"Nico! Hey Nico!" At first, I ignored the person yelling at me, until they walked up to me.

"Hey Nico, what are you doing here so early? You're usually late if anything." I looked up and realized it was Jason. I took the head phones out and pulled the hood down then looked at him.

"Some dude decided to wake me up and tell me to turn my T.V down," I said, "I fell asleep with it on yesterday." He nodded then crouched in front of me.

"What the heck happened?" He asked. I sighed.

"I got into a fight."

"Obviously. Why? And where've you been these past few months?"

"I was at this camp with a friend," I explained, "I usually don't go but I went anyway. We were playing capture the flag and I was guarding the flag with some other guy then this dude comes out of nowhere and tackled me."

Jason nodded then waved at one of his friends who walked over.

"Who did you go with?" He asked. I knew he would ask that. I put my Ipod in one of the pockets in my hoodie.

"Emery," I said. He laughed.

"What did I tell you?" I just glared at him.

"Oh shut up Jason, it's not like that." I said. Well, it was but I wasn't going to tell him that…. Jason just rolled his eyes and introduced his friend. Then we all walked into the school. We split up to go to our classes and I walked into Math. Prepare to be annoyed to no end. I took my seat and crossed my arms over my desk, resting my chin on them. Mr. Johnson seemed surprised that I was actually here for the first day of school on time. Then he noticed my face.

"Good heavens boy," He said, "What happened?" I mocked a surprised face.

"Oh you actually care!" I said, "I thought you didn't care about a punk like me."

He says I'm a punk. He doesn't even know the half of it. Mr. Johnson sighed and handed me a hall pass to the nurse.

"Here, go get yourself looked at," He said, "But make sure you return or I'll add to whoever did that to you." I ignored his threat and pushed the pass back towards him.

"I don't need it." He just cocked an eyebrow and put the pass back on his desk then proceeded to teach algebra. The bell rang and I went to the rest of my classes then headed to PE. The coach decided to have PE outside "since it was such a nice day." We played this game where everyone has a flag like in flag football but there's no ball and everyone runs around trying to get the other persons flag. Basically it was everyone man for himself. I got a few people out then this person came up behind me and took my flag so I got some water from the cooler then sat on the ground.

"Hey Di Angelo." I ignored the voice that I knew was this jerk-off kid who just enjoyed annoying me. That got him pissed. He grabbed the hood to my hoodie and jerked me to my feet and over to him.

"I'm talking to you punk," he growled. I dumped my water on him and shoved him in the chest. This got him even more pissed and he tried to punch me. I side stepped and punched him across the face. This guy was really all talk and when it came to really hurting someone, he wouldn't do it. I usually wasn't overly violent, but right now, I wasn't in the best mood.

Before we could get into a real fight, this Cyclops comes out of nowhere. I growled and flashed the now scared to death jerk-off a dirty look and drew my sword and approached the Cyclops. It picked up a bench and through it at me. I dropped to the ground and it went over me, just missing my head. I stood and ran at it. I heard some kids yelling at me to get away from it. Ha. I wish. I ducked as it swatted at me then it made a weird noise as I slashed its shin. I stood and started to run to get out of reach, but it was faster than I thought and it grabbed my leg and threw me. I most have flown at least fifteen feet then crashed into the ground. I rolled on the ground a couple of times then stopped, lying on my side. I groaned. That's what I get for underestimating a Cyclops. A few people gasped. I wondered why the heck they were hanging around. I sat up and glanced around for my sword. I saw it sticking out of the ground a few feet away between me and the Cyclops. I looked at the kids watching.

"You have a death wish or something! Get out of here!" I yelled at them. A few of them ran, I glared at the rest and signaled for them to run.

I stood and ran for my sword, the Cyclops charging me. I picked up the sword then dived to the side and the Cyclops went right by me. Wow. Then it apparently realized that I was behind it because it skidded to a halt then turned. I raised the sword and watched the Cyclops. It said something that I couldn't understand. Something about food and sheep. Well, sorry to disappoint but you're in NY, there really aren't any places for sheep. It charged with its arms held out in front of it. I waited until the last second then jumped to the side of it, slashing with my sword. It bellowed and back handed my side. I hit the ground a few feet away. I coughed and once the dirt had settled I realized that I had made a mini crater. Alright so close hand combat wasn't really working. I looked around in the crater and saw a huge rock. I grinned and touched the rock and manipulated it into a spear. (**A/N: I looked Nico up and he does indeed have the ability to manipulate rocks). ** I took the spear and stood as the Cyclops charged me. I drew back my arm and threw the spear and it pierced it in the heart. I moaned and fell to the ground then disappeared into a pile of gold dust.

I stabbed the spear into the ground and sheathed my sword and stuck it back into my pocket. I walked back to the school. Right when I opened the door and took one step. Just one. I was mobbed with millions of questions. To which I did this.

"I'M FINE! LEAVE ME ALONE!" Gods. I shoved through the crowd and walked into the guy's bathroom. I locked the door and then pulled my shirt over my head. I had a huge bruise on my shoulder from smacking the ground after the Cyclops had thrown me like I was nothing. And to go along with that, another huge bruise stretched along my left side where it had back handed me.

"Geez Nico, did you get into _another_ fight?" My head snapped up. Thanks gods it was just Jason.

"Yeah….," I said, slipping my shirt back on. Jason rolled his eyes.

"You have way to short of a temper," He said as I followed him out the door after unlocking it.

The principal issued an early release that day since someone told him about the fight with the Cyclops. Although, what everyone thought the Cyclops had been, I don't know. I went with Jason to his house. We walked in and he tossed his backpack on the couch in the living room.

"Jace, why are you home this early?" His Mother said, looking at him sternly as we walked into the kitchen.

"Early release," He said, tossing me a soda. His mother narrowed her eyes. Geez, she's hard to convince.

"Why?" Jason shrugged.

"There was some fight outside," He said then he looked at me. I guess he finally connected the early release with me.

"You're the one that caused the early release?" He said. I nodded. Jason grinned. Then his mother noticed me.

"Oh what happened?" She said, walking over and putting her hands on my face. She was exactly like Percy's mom. I pulled her hands down from my face.

"I'm fine," I said, then added when she was about to protest, "Really. I've had worse." She reluctantly walked away and me and Jason went into the living room played XBOX and some other stuff.

I left Jason's house around 7:00 and started back to my apartment complex. I walked into the lobby and went to a room to the left which had some arcade games. I played a few of those until I ran out of change then went up to the third floor to my room.

**Emery's POV**

I ran into Percy's cabin without knocking and stood in the door way, panting.

"Uh, hi Emery, what's up?" He asked, looking at me like I should have knocked. I rolled my eyes.

"I can't find Nico," I said, walking over and sitting next to him on the bed, "I've looked everywhere." Percy thought for a second. I groaned impatiently.

"Are you sure you looked everywhere?" He asked. I nodded.

"Yeah, positive."

"I'm sure he's fine," Percy said, looking at me, "He runs off a lot, usually he just wants to be alone."

"Ok," I said, only half believing him. After Nico had stormed out of his cabin after shoving Percy I left and went to my cabin. I figured he just needed to be alone. Then, when the bell rang for breakfast I went to his cabin to wake him up but he wasn't there. So, I skipped breakfast and ran around camp-half blood looking for him. So, I went to the archery place and practiced for a few hours, trying to get him off my mind. It didn't work. Curse Aphrodite. I growled and aimed an arrow at the furthest target then released the string. I enjoyed the thud the arrow made when it hit the target.

Once my fingers were sore from the bow string, I went to the arena for fencing and hacked at the dummies. After a while my arms grew tired and I strode back to my cabin and grabbed my Ipod then walked into the forest. I found Zeus's fist and climbed up on top of it. I closed my eyes and listened to the music.


	13. Chapter 13

**Thank you to Ipodwontletmelogin for reviewing. **

_Your presence still lingers here_

_And it won't leave me alone_

_These wounds won't seem to heal_

_This pain is just too real_

_There's so much that time cannot erase_

_**~Immortal, Evanescence **_

_**Chapter 13**_

__**Nico's POV**

I tossed the book I was supposed to be reading for English onto the floor. When will she realize that I can't read that well with dyslexia? I stuffed the homework I had completed into my backpack then grabbed my soda and turned up the volume on the CD player. I sighed then paused the music and listened. I could have sworn I heard some monster downstairs. I heard a scream and switched off the CD player then set my soda down and walked out the door. What's with all the monsters all of a sudden? I mean sure I'm a child of the Big Three, but honestly? To come every freaking day?

I walked down the hall and into the elevator and right when it dinged and the doors opened some acid stuff flew at me. I jumped to the side then bolted out of the elevator. Not a good idea to fight an acid thing in a closed in space. As I ran, it squirted acid directly behind my feet. Luckily, I was close to the lobby desk and ducked behind it. The lady that I always saw was there to.

"What're you doing here? Get to the door, I'll distract it," I said. She shook her head.

"You'll get hurt." Oh, so even though you gave me lots of weird looks you actually care? Whoa. Then I realized that she wasn't much older than me. Maybe around Percy's age.

"What's are you doing working at an apartment complex?" I asked.

"I take over for my Mother whenever she's busy," She said. I nodded then I heard the sound of the desk dissolving under the acid.

"You don't have much time, just run to the door, I'll make sure he doesn't hurt you," I said again, then added before she could protest, "Don't argue just go!"

The lady stood and ran to the door and I jumped over the desk, tackling the acid thing. I know. Not the smartest idea. But it worked. It bit my shoulder and I gritted my teeth and ran its gut through. It screeched and I jumped away, acid spraying everywhere. The monster stood and said something. It sounded like "it's useless saving the mortals, they'll all die soon." Well. Aren't you a pessimist. But still, I couldn't help but get an odd feeling. It lunged at me and I stepped to the side, my sword cutting it in half. That was the biggest mess I've ever seen, until it disappeared into gold dust. I sheathed my sword and put it back in my pocket. Then I got about three-five notices that some people have died.

"Gods, what the heck is going on?" I muttered to myself and walked out of the room. I made my way towards one of the bodies and reached a fancy restaurant. I shrugged and opened the door stepping into the building.

There were a few people there being questioned by the detectives. One of them looked up at me.

"I'm gonna have to ask you the leave the restaurant, sir," he said. Ha. Sir. Then he realized the gold dust all over my cloths and my bleeding shoulder. Now, the weird thing about this was that there was gold dust here and there, so the kid who got killed was a demigod and killed the monster that attacked him. So, either there was a second monster he didn't know about or some mortal murdered him. Or something else entirely.

"Are you ok kid?" the detective asked.

"Yeah, I'm fine," I said, "Where's the body?"

"Excuse me?" I rolled my eyes. Man you're dense.

"The body of the kid that was killed," I said impatiently.

"I'm sorry but you're not allowed to see that," he said, standing and walking over to me, "So, if you could just be on your way and let us handle it that'd be great."

I ground my teeth and forced myself to calm down.

"I knew the kid," I lied, "and I know how and what killed him." The fact that I knew the kid was a lie, everything else I knew, but I'm sure you guys knew all that. This got the detective interested and he consented and took me to the body. He watched as I examined the body and stuff. It was sad that the kid died on his birthday. Now, I found out from the kids memories that there were two monsters. I also found out that he had killed both of them, but on the second one he had been severely injured. But, that wasn't what killed him. What killed him was another demigod. Why? I'm not sure. I sighed and fiddled with the drachmas that I had in my pocket.

"So, who killed him? And what's with all the gold dust?" the detective asked. I pointed to the cut along the kid's throat.

"Whoever did that knew what he was doing," I said, "Especially to do that from behind." Few demigods could pull that off. Only one half-blood came to mind though.

"Yeah, we know that much," the detective said, growing impatient, "But who killed him?"

"I'm not sure who killed him. You guys already know that he was killed with a knife," I said, turning to the guy, "Now the gold dust, I can't tell you."

The detective narrowed his eyes. I could tell he was wondering why I couldn't tell him.

"Why not?"

"Because you wouldn't believe what I told you," I said. I might end of having to tell the guy anyway though, because he'll no doubt ask what the heck I was doing when I did the ceremony thing. I pulled out the two drachmas and placed them on the kids eyes then proceeded to pray in Greek because if I prayed in English it would drive the detective nuts. I finished and almost laughed at the guy's expression.

"What language was that?" He asked. Sorry dude but I was done helping you. I did what I came to do and now I was going to leave.

"Do detectives always ask so many questions?" I asked as I stood and walked away and out of the restaurant. That demigod got me wondering. Sure, there are a few half-bloods that could have killed him. But really only one could have pulled off killing him quickly and with a clean cut. And by clean I mean smooth, not clean as in clean clean. I also wanted to know the reason for killing him. But I guess I would have to live without knowing unless I ran into him. Which I didn't want to happen.

I made my way to the next few people who got killed. There were four total, two of which were demigods, the rest were mortals. When I got to one of the mortals, I did the normal ceremony and moved on, I did the same with the other mortal. It took me a while to get to the demigods, since it was on the other side of NY. So, I got a taxi and told him where I needed to go. He noticed my shoulder and turned around to look at it and almost wrecked.

"Keep your eyes on the road, geez!" I growled.

"Sorry, but what happened to your shoulder kid?" He asked.

"I got into a fight." I guess he could tell I didn't want to talk because he didn't ask any more questions. We go to where I needed to be and I paid him then stepped out of the cab.

I walked along the sidewalk until I got to a sewer thing. I pulled the lid up and stepped down onto the ladder, pushing the lid back in place. I made my way down the ladder, seriously wishing I had a light. Once I got to the bottom of the ladder I stepped down into the water. I know it was a sewer, so it was supposed to stink, but this one smelled more than any sewer I've been in. I walked in the water, passing a few homeless people and rats. After a while, I came upon the body. Thankfully, this one was only killed by a monster. I took out some drachmas and placed them on the kid's eyes and prayed. After I was done praying I heard someone yelling. I sighed and followed the sound. I got to a big open space where all the water from the sewers poured into it. The yelling was fainter from all the rushing water, but I could still hear it. I looked around and I saw some kid hanging from this bar sticking out from the side of the wall below me. He starred at me and he looked scared. I guess I would be to but seriously how did he get himself down there?

I lied down on my stomach and bent as far over the edge as I could without falling, stretching my arm out towards the kid, since there wasn't anything around to use. He grabbed my hand and I started to pull him up but the ledge that was holding my weight cracked and gave away, falling and splashing into the water, that was a long way down. The kid yelped and I grabbed the part of the ledge that hadn't broken, gritting my teeth. Great. Now I was hanging off the ledge, holding a kid while dangling over a lot of water being sucked to who knows where. I felt my hand holding the ledge slipping and tried to pull myself and the kid up. It didn't work, if anything it just loosened my grip. The fact that the kids hand was slipping out of mine didn't help either. I started feeling around for anything to put my feet on and found a small ledge and put my foot on it and pushed myself up, back onto stable ground then pulled the kid up after me.

The kid looked at me then at the ledge then back at me.

"Thanks," He said, after a few minutes. I nodded.

"No problem." He saw my shoulder and made a worried face.

"Are you ok?"

"Yeah, happens all the time." I led him back the way I had come and out of the sewer. We sat on a bench on the side of the road. The kid looked to be about eight.

"What's your name?" I asked.

"Logan," He said, looking at me, "What's yours?"

"Nico," I said, "Do have a place to stay or parents or something?" Logan shook his head.

"No relatives at all?" I asked.

"No, I have a uncle in California but I don't know him very well," He said. Oh no. I am _not_ going to California again. Not gonna happen.

I nodded and looked around. It was already 6:30.

"Can I just stay with you?" Logan asked hesitantly. My first thought was no. To be completely up front with you. But then, the kid had no place to go, which is probably why he was in the sewer in the first place. I still had to take care of that body though.

"Yeah sure," I said and he smiled, "But, I have to take care of something so I'll take you to my apartment and you can stay there." Logan nodded and I took him to my apartment. The carpet was gone in some places where the acid from that thing had hit it and the front desk had a big hole in it. I took the kid to my room and he sat up on the bed.

"You can use the T.V if you want," I said, then pointed to the bathroom, "There's the restrooms, please don't mess with my backpack, it has my school stuff in it." Logan nodded and I said I'd be back then left.

It took me a while to get to the body. Once I did, I groaned. She was killed the same way as the one in the restaurant. A clean cut across the throat. As far as I could tell from her memories, it was the same demigod to. I sighed but did the ceremony. I took a cab back to my apartment since it would be faster and I didn't want to leave Logan there alone for too long. Once to my room, I stuck the keys in an opened the door. Logan had turned on my CD player and was looking at my book for English.

"Is this for school?" He asked, pointing at the book.

"Yeah."

"Is it any good?" I shook my head.

"Not really." Logan smirked. I sat on the bed and looked at the kid.

"How'd you get in the sewer anyway?" I asked. His eyes darkened. Guess he didn't like that question.

"I was chased." He said quietly.

"By who?" He put the book down and sat on the bed next to me, his knees drawn up to his chest.

"You wouldn't believe me if I told you," Logan said. I laughed.

"I bet I would," I said. Still unconvinced, he shook his head.

"Where did you go? It took a while," He said, changing the subject.

I looked at him. I still wasn't sure about telling him, but I had an idea.

"If I tell you where I was, will you tell me what you were chased by?" I asked, standing and sticking my hand in my pocket, feeling for my sword. Logan thought for a minute then slowly nodded.

"I was on the other side of NY," I told him, "looking at a dead body." Logan made a weird face.

"Why?"

"Because that's what I do, well, some of it."

"You look at dead bodies for a living?" He asked. I sighed.

"Logan, have you ever heard of the Greek gods?" I asked.

"You mean like Zeus?"

"Yeah." Logan nodded.

"Lots of times."

"Well, those gods are real—" Before I could say anything else he interrupted.

"They are?"

"Yes. And sometimes they have children with mortals and those are called half-bloods or demigods."

"What are you saying?

"I'm saying that I'm a half-blood." Why am I telling an eight year old that the gods are real and that I'm a half-blood? I have no clue.

"So, you're a half-blood that looks at dead bodies?" Logan asked.

"Yes, but that's only half of what I do," I said, "but tell me what is was that was chasing you."

Logan sighed and looked down at the floor. The kid looked scared. I never really thought I'd say this, but I wish I could help him.

"I don't know," he said, "It was weird looking and had wings. It almost looked like a bat but it also looked sorta human, at least its face did. And it could speak." I looked at him.

"That was one of the three Fates, they live in the Underworld," I said.

"Why was it chasing me?" Logan asked, looking even more scared.

"Logan," I said, "it was chasing you because you're a half-blood. We have a different smell than other people, some demigods have a stronger scent than others. And creatures like the Fates can smell us and try to kill us."

"So, who are my parents then?" Logan asked, looking at me like I had all the answers. I wish I did. I have plenty of questions.

"I don't know. When you lived with your parent, who did you live with, your mother or father?"

"My mother," He said. I nodded.

"I can't tell you who your godly parent is," I said.

"Who's yours?" he asked.  
>"Mine? Mines Hades," I said.<p>

Logan stood and walked over to the small nightstand that was beside my bed and opened the drawer and took something out.

"Is that why you have this?" He asked, holding up the mythomagic figurine of Hades Bianca had given me. I nodded, looking away. Logan obviously noticed something was wrong and came over and sat next to me. I got that weird feeling again. The same one I got when that guy during capture the flag tackled me. Except it wasn't anger. It was love. Not the kind between a wife and husband, but the kind between siblings.


	14. Chapter 14

**Hey! Thank you to Posidion'sDaughter445, MythicalWords, 5UP3R N0V4 and Ipodwontletmelogin for reviewing!**

**MythicalWords: read and you shall see! **

_**Chapter 14**_

**Nico's POV**

I rolled over onto my back in my bed, starring up at the ceiling. Logan was next to me still asleep. I looked at the clock next to my bed. 11:15 on a Tuesday morning. Wait a sec. It was Tuesday and 11:15. Crap. I was late for school. Oh well. I stood and took a quick shower then went through my drawers and closet for a shirt. While I was looking for a shirt, Logan woke up. He sat up and rubbed his eyes.

"How'd you get that muscular?" He asked. Wow. Of all the things you could say when you first wake up.

"There's a camp for Half-Bloods and the training there is harsh," I said.

"What kind of stuff do you do?" He asked. I pulled a shirt over my head before I answered.

"They have sword fighting, archery, rock climbing, capture the flag, lots of stuff."

I walked over and zipped my backpack then slung it over one shoulder then looked at Logan.

"I have to go to school," I told him.

"Can I go?" He asked, his eyes were bright but I could tell he didn't want to be left alone. I sighed, thinking about what he would do while I was in class.

"What will you do while I'm in class?" I asked. Not that I actually paid attention in class, I usually took a nap or zoned out. He shrugged.

"I dunno," he said, "I could sit outside of your classroom."

"Sure whatever," I said, "Just don't break anything." Logan smiled and we walked to my school. My mind wondered as we walked. I did miss Emery some and wondered how she was at Camp. Then it struck me that she might be worried. Oops. Too late now.

"Nico?" Logan asked. I looked over my shoulder at him.

"Doesn't school start in the morning?"

"Yeah," I said, "I just slept in, I do it a lot so the teachers are used to it. They actually expect it."

By the time we got to the school, it was lunch time. So, I led Logan over to Jason, who was sitting alone drinking a soda. I dropped my backpack on the bench then slide into my seat, Logan sitting next to me.

"Decided to come at your usual time I see," Jason greeted.

"Yep," I said. Jason nodded at Logan.

"Who's your friend?"

"Logan," I said, then pointed at Jason and turned to Logan, "That's Jason. He always likes to try and hook me up with some girl." I glared at Jason on the last part. Logan just laughed.

"You know it," Jason said, smirking.

"So," Jason said, looking at the eight year old, "How'd you meet Nico?" Logan frowned then glanced at me. I just shrugged.

"In a sewer," he said slowly.

"In a sewer?" Logan nodded.

"K," Jason said. "Why were you in a sewer?"

I decided to answer this for Logan. Sure the kid was smart, but I didn't want him to go telling Jason that he was chased by a bat/human-like thing because he was a demigod. That would lead to many questions that I don't care to answer.

"He doesn't have any parents," I said. Jason nodded and looked at Logan sympathetically.

"How'd that happen?" He asked. It occurred to me that I didn't even know how the kid lost his parents. I put my elbow on the table, resting the side of my head on my hand, looking at Logan. The kid sighed and starred at the table, thinking.

"We only have a few more minutes," Jason said, "No hurry though." Logan nodded.

"Some person broke into our house and threatened my mom," he said, "And she told me to run. Once I was out of the house I heard a gunshot."

None of us said anything after that, then the bell rang and we all went to our classes. Logan did as he said he would and sat outside of my classroom. Not much happened in the classes. I got lectured about being late in every single class. They did that even though it was obvious I didn't really care. We had PE in doors since it looked like it would rain outside, which it did. The coach didn't have us do much. Just a lot of running, jumping jacks and some other stuff then we did some game. I don't know what it was called. It was weird. What really got me annoyed was the fact that people _still_ asked me about that Cyclops. Honestly, I'm here at school, so that means I'm fine. God's people. Then of course, that jerk-off kid _had_ to walk up to me.

"So, why'd you bring an eight year old to a High School, Di Angelo?" He asked. Why he insisted on calling me by my last name, I don't know. He said it weird though, which bothered me.

"Did you pity him because he's like you?" He went on, "No place to stay. No parents."

"He probably cuts himself to," One of his friends added. I glared, clinching my fist.

"Leave him alone," I growled.

I got that weird feeling again. I just sorta felt connected with the kid. That sounds weird but it's true.

"Awe," the jerk-off continued in a mocking tone, "He cares about the little kid." Ok, just to give some background on this guy. His names Jake Peters. He's one of those "popular" kids, which makes it more annoying. Anyways, we've never gotten along. The guy just gives me a bad vibe.

"Does he live with you to?" Jake said, putting his hand on the wall just above my shoulder. I just glowered at him and walked off. Luckily for him. I noticed Logan watching and I didn't want to get into a fight with him watching.

I strode over to where the coach kept water and got a bottle from the cooler then sat on the table next to it. Logan walked up with a concerned look on his face.

"Who were those kids?" He asked. I looked at Jake and his friends watching, amused.

"Just a bunch of jerks," I told Logan, "Just ignore them." He nodded, but still asked questions.

"What were they saying that made you mad?" I shook my head, dismissing the topic. Once PE was over, we went to study hall. Really, it was just a class where you could whatever you wanted. So, I listened to my Ipod. Then Logan wanted to listen to so I let him. After half an hour, I fell asleep.

"Nico?" I felt someone shaking my shoulder. I groaned and buried my face in my arms that were folded across the table.

"Hey, the bell rang. It's time to go." I sighed and raised my head and waited until my eyes focused. Logan was staring at me. I never realized how dark his eyes were. I put my Ipod in my pocket then we walked out of the school.

We walked around NY. The weather was nice, a little on the cool side but still nice. It was cloudy from the rain earlier and there was still some lightning and thunder in the distance.

"So, what do you wanna do?" I asked, looking at Logan.

"I don't know," He said, looking around, "I think you know this place better than I do." I paused at a bench at a stop light.

"Well, there's an arcade and pizza place down that way."

"Don't they cost money?" I smirked.

"Yeah but I have that." Logan seemed hesitant.

"I have enough," I said as I counted the cash I had in my pocket.

"Ok," He said, smiling.

So, we headed down the arcade that had a pizza place inside. I paid and we got some coins and stuff then played some games. After a while, we went to the café and got some pizza and sodas.

"What do you wanna do now?" Logan asked. I shrugged.

"Dunno." Truthfully, I thought of lots of things. But, they would involve using the Mist to deceive people.

"Do you know how to drive?" He asked, looking at me like he thought of something.

"Not legally." I said. Logan made a face.

"That doesn't matter though, I know something I can do." He brightened and we left the arcade.

We went to a motorcycle dealer and I used the Mist to get the guy to let us "test drive" it. I gave the helmet to Logan and he strapped it on, asking me to tighten it. After that, he sat behind me then we sped out of the dealer. We drove around NY far into the night. It was around midnight and I turned onto this street then there was a rumbling sound along with the ground shaking, which made the motorcycle wobble some. Then this thing comes out of the ground right in front of us. I hit the brakes, skidding and stopping right in front of it. It was huge, at least half the size of the empire state building. Not good. I felt Logan grip my shirt. I pressed the gas thing until my knuckles turned white and the motorcycle sped off in the opposite direction of the….thing.

Now, I don't know how fast motorcycles can go, but I had that thing going as fast as it would go. That monster chased us and it was pretty fast considering how big it was.

"What is that thing?" Logan yelled over the motor.

"I don't know!" I glanced over my shoulder and gritted my teeth. It wasn't that far behind. People were running and screaming everywhere. At least they had the sense to go somewhere aside from the buildings along the side of the road where it was trailing us. Pretty soon, we were the only ones on the road, along with all the abandoned cars, which by the way, made is _so_ much easier for me to drive. It was a happy evening in NY when a huge monster decided to attack me.

"It's gaining!" Logan yelled. I could literally hear the fear in his voice. I tried thickening the shadows, but it didn't really do anything. Guess it went on smell more than sight. I also tried summoning skeletons. That didn't really do much either, it slowed it down some but not a great deal.

Logan tightened his grip around my torso. The poor kid was shaking like heck. I felt the ground shake and heard the concrete cracking then the thing clipped the back of the motorcycle with his hand and sent it flying, taking us with it. I collided with the roof of a car and bounced a good ten feet in the air then hit the concrete. I moaned and rolled onto my back, gripping my shoulder. My vision swam and was blotchy. I felt the side of my head and sure enough, there was a cut that was bleeding. I tried moving my arm but couldn't. I looked and saw that my shoulder was out of socket. I pushed it back into place, gritting my teeth. I heard Logan scream and looked around. The monster thing was holding him in his hand. The kid was kicking but it didn't really do any good. I stood, taking my sword out of my pocket.

Really, there wasn't much I could do. Where was a rock when I needed one? I ran up to the thing, dodging its feet and other hand. As it lifted its foot I slashed its ankle. The monster stooped and tried to grab me. When its hand was low enough, I jumped into it and climbed up its arm, across its shoulder then down its other arm towards Logan. I drove my sword into its wrist until the whole blade had disappeared. It bellowed and dropped Logan. Logan yelped and I jumped off of the thing, smacking into him then shadow travelling a few feet away so we didn't smack into the ground as hard. I set him down on the ground.

"Hey, you ok?" I asked. He groaned but nodded then pointed at the thing approaching us.

I summoned a big pool of fire beneath the monster and it disappeared into the Underworld, screaming. Logan seemed surprised.

"That was cool," he said, looking at me. I just smirked and helped him up.

"Can you walk?" I asked.

"I think so," Logan said. I nodded and we started walking then I heard a thump and turned around. Logan was lying on his side, unconscious. I walked over and knelt next to him, lifting his shirt up, looking for any major injuries. There was a big gash in his side, bleeding badly. I cursed in Greek.

"Nico?" I looked up at the sound of my name. There was Mrs. Jackson, standing on the sidewalk a few feet away. I smiled, relieved as she jogged over.

"What happened?"

"There was a monster and it attacked him," I said, deciding I would tell her the whole story later. I used my hoodie and wrapped it tightly around Logan's side and carried him to Mrs. Jackson's car. I guess she was on the other side of NY when the thing attacked because her car wasn't totaled. She drove us to her apartment and I set Logan down on her couch as she tended to his gash.

"You can use Percy's room if you'd like," She told me. I nodded thankfully and crashed on my cousin's bed.

**Hey! Sorry for not updating for a few days, whenever I had the chance to get on the computer I was never able to actually finish the chapter. So yeah, I managed to finish it this time! Please review;)**


	15. Chapter 15

**Greetings people of earth! I sound like an alien when I do that….anyways, so here's chapter 15. Thanks to I'm Weird Deal With It and Mythical Words for reviewing! Please review.**

_**Chapter 15**_

I fell out of Percy's bed. What a nice way to wake up! Don't you just love it when you fall out of bed in the morning? My head smacked something hard and I cursed. As I rubbed the back of my head I looked behind me to see what I had hit. A nightstand.

"Stupid nightstand," I mumbled as I stood and walked out of the room. Mrs. Jackson was cooking pancakes. Probably blue ones. As I walked into the living room, Logan looked up at me from the couch.

"You're up," He said, smiling. I nodded, still rubbing my head and irritated at the nightstand.

"Why're you rubbing your head?" He asked.

"I fell out of bed and my head smacked the nightstand," I said. Logan laughed.

"Wow Nico."

I rolled my eyes and walked into the kitchen.

"Good morning," Mrs. Jackson said, looking at me from the pan that held the pancakes.

"Hi," I said. I opened one of the cabinets and grabbed a glass then filled it with some juice. I strode back into the living room and sat on a chair by the couch. Logan looked at me, his face was unreadable. For the first time, I realized how different he dressed than other eight year olds. He dressed….well, like me. I thought about it and realized that this kid could be my brother. The weird feeling I get, the way he dresses, his dark eyes and pale skin. After a few minutes, I realized that Logan had asked me a question.

"What?" I asked.

"Are you going to take me to that camp?" He repeated.

"I'm not going to force you," I said, "But it would be good for you to learn." Logan nodded.

"The pancakes are ready boys," Mrs. Jackson said. Logan jumped off the couch and ran into the kitchen. Someone's on hungry. I followed him and grabbed a plate then went to the table.

While we were eating I explained to Mrs. Jackson the whole story of how Logan got that huge gash on his side and the cut on my head. Then I explained how I met Logan, since she wanted to know so badly. After this she wanted to know how I was and stuff.

"I'm good," I said around pancake, "Nothing much has really happened." Once I was finished eating I went to the bathroom to look at the cut on my head. It really wasn't that bad, but cuts on the head tend to bleed a lot. It had stopped bleeding, but my hair around it was matted with blood. I sighed and bent over the sink and washed it out. Once I was finished I walked out and into Percy's room. I grabbed my shoes and pulled them on then went into the living room.

"You ready?" I asked, looking at Logan.

"Yeah," He said.

"You guys can stay as long as you want, you know," Mrs. Jackson said, looking at me. I nodded.

"I know, we just shouldn't stay here."

We walked out the door and towards the main lobby. Once out of the apartment we fiddled around some until noon then went into a fast-food restaurant. We ordered and the guy gave us our receipt that had our number on it then we sat a booth. Neither of us said anything, but it was a comfortable silence. My mind wondered towards Camp and Emery. I felt somewhat guilty for leaving and not telling her. She was probably worried but I'm sure Chiron was keeping her busy. Then I remembered the centaur's worry about a war. It hit me that a war very well could be coming. All the monsters and the demigods dying. I sighed and thumped my head against the back of the booth.

"What's up?" Logan asked, looking from the window to me.

"I was just thinking," I said. The person with our food came and set the trey down then asked if we needed anything.

"We're good," I said. He nodded then walked off.

"Thinking about what?" Logan asked, continuing our conversation. I shook my head, not wanting to worry him over a war.

"Nothing really," I said. Logan took a French fry and put it in his mouth then paused, thinking.

"Is it a girl?" He finally asked.

I looked up from my food. I have to admit, I was a little surprised by his question. I mean seriously? An eight year old asking if I was fretting over a girl? Ugh. Maybe I was fretting over Emery. Curse Aphrodite and her love stuff. Besides, Hades was the god of the Dead. Technically, I wasn't supposed to feel love. Only hate, lust, loneliness and stuff like that. Then again, I already knew I was in love with Emery. As much as I hate to admit it. I looked at Logan, who was waiting for me to answer.

"That's not the only thing," I said, looking at my food. Hey, might as well be honest with him. He grinned. I swear, he was going to be just like a mini Jason.

"What's her name?" He asked. I glared at him. Logan made a pleading face.  
>"Please? I won't tell anyone!"<p>

"There's no one to tell," I said.

"All the more reason for you to tell me her name."

"Fine," I said, "Emery, her names Emery."

Logan nodded. I could tell he was thinking of all the questions to ask me about Emery. I braced myself as I ate my food.

"What does she look like?" Logan finally asked, smirking at me over his drink. I rolled my eyes and thought for a second.

"You'll meet her at the camp," I said, smiling evilly.

Logan glared at me but finished food. We walked out of the restaurant and walked around NY until dark. Then I took Logan got Central Park.

"So, how are we gonna get to that camp if it's not in New York?" Logan asked, looking around. The park was empty aside from a few teenagers doing drugs or something.

"Shadow travel," I said. Logan looked at me blankly.

"It's an ability I have since I'm a son of Hades," I explained, "I did it when you fell from that things hand, remember?"

"Oh that," Logan said, "Not really the softest landing."

"No," I said, smiling, "But it's faster than normal travel." I look Logan's hand then summoned my powers and though 'Camp Half-Blood' and we disappeared.

We crash landed on Half-Blood Hill buy Thalia's tree. A half-blood that was sitting in the tree fell out with a surprised expression on his face. I cracked up laughing while I got up.

"Man, you should have seen your face," I said. I recognized him as an Apollo kid; I just couldn't remember his name.

"You're the one who fell out of the sky!" He retorted.

"Whatever," I said, "Come on Logan." I led Logan down the hill towards the Camp, the Apollo kid following. Right now, it was just after dinner so people were still walking out of the pavilion. Most were just heading back to their cabins, but a few hung around talking and stuff. Percy saw me and waved me over.

"Your back," He said as I walked over with Logan.

"Yeah," I said, "This is Logan."

"Hey," Percy said, smiling slightly.

"Hi," Logan said.

I told Percy how I met Logan. I'm getting tired of telling the whole story; I need to think of a shorter version. Then of course Logan asked Percy about his quests and how we met and stuff. While he was telling those stories, I looked around and spotted Emery talking to an Aphrodite kid. That sorta surprised me, but this girl didn't seem to bad, not that I wanted to meet her. Emery was wearing some torn black jeans and a dark purple shirt that had a skull on it. When she saw me, I couldn't even begin to describe her face. She looked so freaking happy, it was funny. She said goodbye to her friend then ran over and hugged me. I laughed then started coughing. She was stronger than she looked.

"Why didn't you tell me you were leaving?" She said, glaring at me. This is where I act all innocent and cute. I scratched the back of my head, smiling.

"Eh hehe," I said. She rolled her eyes.

"Whatever," she said, "you can tell me later."

Logan was smiling like an idiot.

"What's your name?" Emery asked, looking at Logan.

"Logan," He said.

"Hi, I'm Emery," She said. He nodded, looking from me to Emery. I rolled my eyes then we showed Logan around. Then of course we went to the Big House so he could meet Chiron. He asked Logan the usual questions then we fiddled around. We went to the arena and Logan watched me and Emery spare. She had improved a lot while I was gone, I was impressed. After a while, it was time for us to go to our cabins.

"Can I just stay with you?" Logan asked.

"Yeah sure," I said. I showed him where the cabin was then we both crashed.

**Yeah…its short but I don't feel like writing a seriously long chapter :P**


	16. Chapter 16

**Hey! My apologies for not updating, I was at friends houses and I had another story to update and yeah but thanks to everyone who reviewed!**

_I reached out, fell short, now you're hurt_

_To many words, breaking the silence_

_I felt it, bled it, screamed it_

_it only gets worse, and it kills me what's in me _

_Is to angry for us to survive,_

_I used too many words tonight…._

_**To Many Words, Sick Puppies**_

_**Chapter 16**_

**Nico's POV**

I woke up and Logan was still asleep in one of the other bunks in the cabin. I decided to let him sleep in and slipped my shoes on then walked out the door. I walked around since it wasn't time for breakfast yet. I saw Emery talking to that Aphrodite girl again and smiled. It's good that she was making some friends aside from me, Percy and Annabeth. I walked into the arena for fencing and drew my sword and hacked at some dummies to pass time.

"Want someone to spar with?" I turned to see who was speaking. Most of the time, people didn't want to spar with me since they thought I would kill them or something. I know crazy idea. I smirked when I saw an Aphrodite girl standing there, watching me.

"Afraid a daughter of the love Goddess is going to beat you?" She asked. Ok. So this girl had an attitude.

"No," I said cockily, "you guys just usually avoid me." She sauntered over then started walking circles around me. Great. She was flirting with me.

"Well, I don't see anything bad about you," She said, "so, do you wanna spar or not?"

"Fine," I said, "It'd be good to see an Aphrodite girl with some talent."

The girl smiled and struck at me with the sword she had been holding. I blocked and shoved my weight forward. She took a step back, but didn't stumble. We sparred for some time. The girl actually had some talent. I have to admit, I was a bit surprised. After a while, we stopped. I was really thirsty. I seriously needed to start bringing water. I put up my sword then sat on the ground, she sat next to me.

"Well?" She asked. I looked at her sidelong. I realized that she had black eye liner and red eye shadow on.

"Your better than most," I said.

"I thought so," She said, "I'm Melisa by the way." I nodded.

We talked for a while then the breakfast bell rang and we walked to the pavilion. We got some weird looks. I can't say I blamed them. I never thought I would hang out with an Aphrodite kid in my whole life. When I got there, Logan was up giving is offering. I sat at my table and said what I wanted. While I was doing this, the place got sorta cold. I heard multiple gasps and looked up. Everyone was staring at Logan, who had the symbol for Hades above his head. Now, this really didn't surprise me, I figured he was my brother a few days ago. It surprised him though. He walked over to me, looking a little uncomfortable being stared at. He sat across from me on the table.

"You don't look surprised," He said.

"I figured you were my brother a few days ago," I said.

"Then why didn't you tell me?" Logan asked, giving me a weird look.

"Because I could've been wrong."

"Oh."

I smirked and started eating. While I was eating, I noticed that Emery was smiling over at me and Logan. Once breakfast was finished, Logan said that he wanted me to teach him how to use a sword. So, we went to the arena once again. After a few minutes I found a sword that he could lift. They were either too big, too small or just didn't have a good balance to them. I began showing him the stances and how to hold the sword and all that other stuff. Once he got the moves down, I told him to strike at me. Logan hesitated then struck at me with his sword. I blocked and shoved forward. He fell backwards onto his back with a grunt.

"I think your forgetting that you're stronger than me," He said. I smirked and helped him up. We went on like that for some time, every once in a while I would tell him to correct something.

"Alright," Logan said, panting, "Can we take a break? My arms hurt."

"Sure," I said. I remembered when I was like that. The only difference was that a ghost was teaching me and I was alone. Logan smiled at me and we walked out of the arena then he said that he wanted to try the rock climbing with the lava.

"Ok, just be careful," I said. He nodded and ran off.

"He's lucky to have you as a brother." I turned and smiled when I saw Emery.

She smiled back and walked over and we sat on the ground.

"Who's that Aphrodite girl you were talking to earlier?" I asked, looking at her.

"Her names Cassie," Emery said, "She's really nice and not like her siblings." I nodded.

"She seems nice." We just sat there, in silence. It was nice though.

"Hey Nico?" Emery asked, after a few minutes.

"Hmm?"

"Are you gonna tell me why you left?" I sighed.

"I just needed to be alone I guess," I said quietly. Emery nodded. We talked for a while then did some of the activities. After while, it was time for the Campfire-sing-a-long-thing. I never really sang, but it was fun watching the fire change colors. Chiron seemed happy, but I could tell he was still worried about a war. I guess I should tell him about the bodies I found in New York. Meh. I'll do that later.

Once the campfire was over, I noticed Melisa waving at me. I walked over.

"What's up?" I asked. She smiled and took my hand and led me into the woods. Ok, now I usually don't care what people think of me, but this was a little weird. I mean think about it, a Hades kid and Aphrodite girl walking towards the woods. But, I let her lead me. There was just something I liked about Melisa, I just don't know what. She led me deep into the woods then stopped at a stream. There was a hole in the tree branches so you could see the sky. It was really pretty. Melisa sat on the ground and gestured for me to sit next to her. I did and looked up at the sky. I saw the constellation of Hercules and all the other demigods up there. After a few minutes I realized that Melisa was resting her head on my shoulder. I smirked slightly and she smiled.

"It's pretty isn't it?" She said.

"Yeah."

"You know," She said, "I don't see what everyone hates about you, you're a nice guy."

"Thanks, you to."

Melisa sat up after I said that, looking at me funny. It wasn't a creepy look but…I dunno…she just looked at me funny. I've never really been looked at in that way. She leaned closer and I looked at her, wondering what she was doing. Then she kissed me, which surprised me. I know, I know, you'd think I'd be used to that by now, but I'm not ok? What surprised me even more was that I kissed her back. She pulled away, smirking. I looked at the ground. I could feel my face flushing slightly. Melisa laughed and rested her head against my shoulder. I put my arm around her waist. We sat there talking for a while then we headed back to our cabins.

**Emery's POV**

I noticed Nico walk off with an Aphrodite girl after the campfire. I didn't recognize her, but I still just thought it was weird for Nico to go off with her. He usually couldn't stand Aphrodite kids. So, I followed them but stayed far enough back so they didn't notice me. After while, they stopped by a stream and the girl sat down then gestured for Nico to do the same. He seemed to hesitate a little but then sat next to her. Ok, now this was getting really weird. I crouched behind a bush a good distance away. Nico looked up at the sky and the girl rested her head on his shoulder, he smirked and she smiled up at him. I officially labeled this girl my rival. They said a few things that I couldn't hear then she kissed him and he kissed her back. I felt angry and hurt at the same time. Fine, be that way Nico. You'll regret it soon enough.

**Nico's POV**

The next day, I noticed something was up with Emery. She just seemed….I dunno…she just seemed upset. So, after breakfast, I walked up to her.

"Hey, is there something wrong?" I asked. She looked at me and smiled, but it wasn't her usual smile, it was different.

"No," She said.

"Come on, you seem upset or something," I persisted. Emery cocked her head to the side a little.

"You wanna know what's wrong?" She asked.

"Yeah."

"Fine then," she said, "You Nico. _You._" I made a face.

"What do you mean?"

"You know exactly what I mean," She said harshly.

"No I don't," I said, growing more and more confused, "Elaborate."

"Who do you love Nico? Who do you truly love?" Emery asked. This question caught me off guard.

"You don't know do you? I saw you last night, with that girl."

"Emery, you don't understand—" I began.

"I understand perfectly! Leave me alone Nico and don't _ever_ approach me again," She said, turning and walking off.

I groaned and jogged after her and grabbed her arm, turning her around.

"Emery please," I said, looking at her. She whirled and shoved me in the chest hard.

"Go away! I'm sick of you!" That was it. I glared at her.

"Fine! Go burn in hell for all I care!" I turned and stormed off. There were a few people watching and whispering to each other. Among these people was Logan. Great. He probably saw the whole thing. I walked back to the cabin, slamming the door shut. I grabbed my Ipod and plopped down on my bed. If that's how Emery wanted it, fine, I didn't care. I blasted the music so loud that I didn't even hear Logan walk in until he looked at me. I never want to see that face again. He looked worried and sad at the same time and it killed me. I looked away and he tapped my shoulder. I sighed and took out the head phones and looked at him.

"What happened?" He asked.

"Nothing," I lied.

"You're lying," he said, "what happened Nico?" I shook my head.

"You wouldn't understand."

"So? At least tell me."

"It was nothing ok? Just leave me alone!" I yelled at him. I immediately regretted yelling at him because he flinched slightly and looked down.

"Hey, I'm sorry I yelled," I said looked at him, "I just need to be alone." Logan nodded, smiling slightly and left the cabin.

I rolled over on my bed and closed my eyes. Without realizing it, I fell asleep.


	17. Chapter 17

**Heeyy! Sorry I haven't updated, I've been reading this story and it was really good and yeah, but I finished it so I shall update! Thank you to silverbite for reviewing, I'm glad you liked how I did that last chapter. Oh, and that idea about Emery finding Nico with another girl/them getting mad at each other and yelling, that wasn't MY idea, it a reviewer's idea, I won't say the person's name but they know who they are :P PLEASE REVIEW!**

_We will fight, or we will fall_

_Until the angles save us all_

_We are young, but we have heart_

_Born in this word as it all falls apart_

_We are strong but we don't belong_

_Born in this world as it all falls apart_

_**~Young, Hollywood Undead. **_

_**Chapter 17**_

**Nico's POV**

It was noon when I finally woke up. I took a quick shower, changed then walked out of the cabin. I spotted Emery talking to someone with her back to me and scowled, glaring at her. I made my way to the Big House, stepping up onto the wrap-around porch; then walking into the building. Chiron was sitting in his wheel chair alone. Probably thinking. I cleared my throat loudly. He looked up then smiled.

"Ah Nico," He said, gesturing to the couch next to him, "what can I do for you?" I sat down on the edge, putting my elbows on my knees.

"When I was in New York, I kept running into a lot of monsters," I said, "then after that I found a lot of dead demigods, some were just killed by monsters; others were killed by other demigods." Chiron frowned, thinking, a worried look clouding his face.

"It seems monsters have been appearing very frequently now, which worries me," He said, "however, you say that some of these demigods were killed by another demigod." I nodded.

"Was it the same demigod each time?" Chiron asked, looking at me.

"I _think_ so, but I'm not sure," I said slowly.

Then the air in front of us both started shimmering and a blurry image a Thalia appeared.

"Chiron!" She said an urgent look on her face. Faintly, I could hear the sounds of the Hunter's fighting and people screaming.

"Thalia, is everything alright?" Chiron asked. Thalia held up one finger then turned around and barked some order, then turned back to us.

"If you call Manhattan being flooded by demigods and monsters alright then yeah we're just peachy," She said, rolling her eyes.

"Wait," I said, "Manhattan is being flooded by demigods and monsters?"

"Oh hey Nico," She said, "yeah it's being flooded. We're spread out in a few different states because of monsters are appearing." I groaned. Great. Just what I needed, a worldwide war.

"Where are they appearing exactly?" Chiron asked.

"Well, there mainly here in Manhattan," Thalia said, "But there are some by the Mississippi River in Wisconsin, Little Rock, Arkansas and some are popping up near the Trinity River. But that's probably just half of it."

Chiron's face turned grave but he nodded.

"Thank you for informing us Thalia."

"Oh, that wasn't exactly why I contacted you," She said, "Could you send some half-bloods down here? We could use the help." Chiron nodded and Thalia disconnected then he turned to me.

"Gather some half-bloods and go the Manhattan," He told me.

"Sure, but what about the rest of the places Thalia mentioned?" I asked. This was bad. How the heck were we gonna keep all those monsters and demigods at bay? Sure we have maybe 100+ campers but not enough to spread out across the freaking USA.

"You would have to transport them," Chiron said, looking at me beseechingly, "Unless there's another way." I shook my head and walked out of the Big House. Did he seriously expect me to transport a big group of half-bloods to different states and fight at the same time? Guess I would have to deal with it.

I went to Percy's cabin and knocked impatiently. There was some rustling then he opened the door.

"Hey Nico, what's up?" He asked. I decided to skip the pleasantries and get to the point.

"Thalia contacted Chiron saying that monsters and demigods were invading Manhattan, Little Rock, near the Trinity River and the Mississippi River in Wisconsin," I said, "possibly some other places to." Percy starred at me.

"Again? Gods. How are we gonna get there?" I posed dramatically at pointed my thumbs at myself.

"Yours truly." He laughed then looked worried.

"That'll get tiring, is there another way?" Leave it to Percy to think of me.

"Aside from cars and stuff, no," I said, "but its fine, I can do it Percy." Leave it to me to lie to my cousin so he won't worry. My cousin looked doubtful and I smirked at him.

"Alright, just be careful Nico," he said.

I nodded and we walked around camp, gathering up half-bloods. Emery walked up to Percy, ignoring me.

"What's going on?" She asked. I flashed her an evil look then walked over to Clarisse. We had a mutual respect for each other.

"Monsters and demigods are flooding various places around the world. We're going to help the Hunters with holding them at bay," Percy explained. Emery nodded.

"How are we gonna get to them?" She asked. Percy pointed at me. She scowled but nodded. Clarisse looked at me as I approached.

"What do you want?" She asked, not unkindly. I told what I told everyone else and she nodded.

"I'll get some of my siblings," She said, walking off, yelling at some of her brothers and sisters. Percy walked over to me, giving me a odd look.

"What?" I asked.

"What's up with you and Emery?" He asked. I sighed, suddenly in a foul mood.

"Let's focus on the matter at hand," I said curtly, walking off.

We gathered a lot of campers, maybe half of the camp then Logan walked up to me.

"I heard what's going on," he said. Good because I was getting tired of explaining. Logan paused.

"Can I go?" I looked at him, surprised.

"Logan—"I stared.

"Please? I can fight!"

"I know but it's too dangerous," I said, my eyes darkening. He looked at me pleadingly. I closed my eyes, trying to calm my emotions from everything that had happened in the past few days.

"Logan, I want you to stay here," I finally said. Logan nodded, looking a little crest fallen and walked off. I sighed but didn't regret my decision.

"What's wrong?" I looked up to see Melisa and smiled.

"Nothing," I said, gesturing to the group of half-bloods, "You wanna come?"

"Does that mean you think I can fight?" She asked, smirking. I rolled my eyes.

"Yeah, now do you wanna come or not?" I said, feeling Emery's eyes bore into my back. I ignored her and Melisa nodded then took my hand, letting me lead her over to the group of demigods. I smirked coldly over at Emery. She just turned her back to me and stood by Annabeth and Percy. Everyone held hands and I summoned my powers then thought 'Manhattan' and we disappeared.

We landed in Manhattan. A few people were groaning. At least, the ones who weren't used to shadow traveling. Which was most of them. I immediately felt the effects of shadow travelling a lot of people. I never felt so tired in my life, but I told Chiron that I would do it so I will. I sat up and made sure we had everybody. Thalia ran up to us.

"Thanks for coming at such short notice," She said, looking at me. I just nodded and told half of the group to go with Thalia while I took Percy and the rest of them to a different location. Thalia took the half-bloods and told them the situation and where she wanted them etc. I took Percy and the rest to the Mississippi River in Wisconsin. So, we landed by the Mississippi River and sure enough there were a heck of a lot of monsters there. Every monster you could think of, it was there. Of course, at the sight of so many demigods, they went crazy. A monster charged me as I was getting up, even more tired than I was before. Ugh. If I survived this I would be surprised. I drew my sword and side stepped as it charged me, beheading it. A hellhound jumped at me and I ducked but my reflexes were slower than usual and its paws clipped my shoulders, making me fall onto my back, hard. I grunted and for a few seconds I couldn't breathe. It walked up to me and slammed its paw down on my gut. I coughed up blood then glared at it and stabbed its paw. It yelped and lifted its paw off of me. I stood and summoned a fire pit and the hellhound was engulfed in flames and taken back to the Underworld.

I remembered the other places Thalia had said there were monsters at. So, I went back to Camp Half-Blood. Man, Chiron better thank for after all this, because I'm pushing my limits here. I landed on half-blood hill and ran down the hill towards camp. I gathered some more half-bloods then looked the Logan. I didn't want him to have to fight, but I also didn't want him here alone. But, I couldn't find him. So, I took basically the rest of camp to Little Rock, Arkansas. From there, I took half of those demigods to the spot near the Trinity River. I collapsed once we reached the Trinity River. I was _so_ tired. I know I've said that but I was tired. Like, I-can't-get-up-even-if-a-monster-attacked-me-tired. One of Annabeth's brothers crouched next to me.

"Hey, you ok?" He asked. I looked and realized that it was the guy that was guarding the flag with me during Capture the Flag. He looked worried.

"Yeah, I'm just tired," I mumbled, forcing myself up. He handed my some ambrosia and I took it. It helped me wake up some, but I was still tired. I told him that I had to go back to Wisconsin and he nodded.

I landed back by the Mississippi River right in front of one of those acid shooting things. It shot acid at me and I tried dodging but it was like I was going in slow motion. No, it wasn't because I was tired. It was something totally different and I knew what. But it couldn't be him. We destroyed him years ago. He couldn't be rising again. But it was the only logical explanation. I winced as the acid hit my arm, burning through my shirt and skin. Then, just like that, everything went back to normal, going at its usual speed instead of slowing down. I dodged the next shot of acid then slashed its throat with my sword, killing it. Then I felt something smack my back and I fell forward, landing in a pool of blood. I grunted and turned onto my back. Standing before me was Tyrell, a smirk on his face. I glared up at him and stood, lashing out with my sword. He blocked it easily. My movements were sloppy from exhaustion.

"Tired Nico?" He asked. The fact that he remembered my name bothered me.

"You killed them," I growled, "You killed all those half-bloods in New York." Tyrell cocked one eyebrow.

"You figured it out then? Good, I was wondering how long it would take you."

I gritted my teeth and slashed his shoulder. We exchanged blows for a while, then pinned me against a tree with his sword to my throat.

"Why are you with Kronos? He'll just kill you once he's done with you," I said. Tyrell pressed the sword against my throat harder making blood trickle down my neck.

"We had no other place to go, since you killed practically all my friends," He said, his voice cold. It took me a few seconds to realize that he was talking about his friends at Imperia Island. So, all those half-bloods that survived were with Kronos.

"You could have gone to the Greek Camp," I said quietly. Tyrell growled and drew the sword back slightly then started to bring it back down towards my throat. There was a flash of a figure then Tyrell was on the ground with Logan on top of him. Tyrell quickly recovered and slashed at Logan. The kid blocked it but the blow must have jarred his arm because he dropped the sword. Tyrell stabbed Logan in the gut. He cried out slightly, pressing his hand against the wound. Tyrell turned to me but before he could land a blow, Logan slashed at him again. Tyrell growled, obviously getting tired of the kid. They fought for a few seconds then Tyrell shoved his weight forward, knocking Logan onto his back. He pinned him and was about to kill him but I blocked the sword and shoved Tyrell away from him.

"Leave him alone," I said.

Tyrell looked at me then at the kid. He narrowed his eyes as he studied Logan. He looked at me, his eyes showing some emotion I couldn't identify; then he walked off. I sighed and knelt next to Logan. I scolded myself for not bringing any ambrosia.

"What are you doing here?" I said my voice harsh from worry.

"You were in danger," he said, almost guiltily.

"I told you to stay at camp."

"You expect me to stay there when you're in danger?" I sighed.

"Did you shadow travel?" Logan nodded. It was obvious he was tired. His body wasn't used to using his powers. I helped Logan up and let him lean on me as I looked for a place to put him. I found a ditch hidden by trees, bushes and rocks and other stuff like that. He sat down in the ditch then looked at me uncertainly.

"Stay here," I said; then added, "Even if I'm in danger, I want you to stay put."

"But—"He started.

"Please Logan, I don't want you to get hurt," I said, kneeling next to him.

"Ok, "He said, looking at me. I smiled at him then walked off.


	18. Chapter 18

**I'm back! Sorry I haven't updated in like….for**_**ever**_**, we haven't had internet access -.-. So, we have internet now and I am going to update (duh, you wouldn't be reading this is I wasn't updating). Anyway, thank you to silverbite and lostinmylalaland for reviewing! **

_If you were dead or still alive_

_**I don't care, I don't care**_

_Just go and leave this all behind_

'_Cause I swear, I swear_

_**I don't care**_

_**~I Don't Care, Apocalyptica **_

_**Chapter 18**_

**Nico's POV**

I slashed the throat of a Cyclops then looked around, panting. The battle had been going on for hours and I was beyond tired. The only thing really keeping me going was the adrenaline and the threat of being killed. Once this was over, I was going straight to my cabin and crashing, heck; I might just sleep on the ground. Screw going all the way back to Long Island. A screech tore me from my thoughts. Before I could even raise my sword, I was thrown aside by….something. I didn't recognize the monster at all.

It was huge, the biggest monster I'd seen. It was seriously buff, like those get-huge-muscle-in-ninety-days-buff. It resembled something like a Cyclops, except it had two eyes and was a lot taller and its skin looked rough. It had a loin cloth as clothes and that was about it. Oh, and it had a huge broad sword and an ax. Crap. Crap. Crap. I growled then stood, gripping my sword tightly. It bellowed and the air from it's breathe stirred my hair. Gods, ever heard of mouth wash? It took its ax, which, by the way, was seriously huge, taller than me, and swung it at me. I ducked and ran in a half crouch towards its legs. It saw me and brought its foot down towards me. I dove to the left, rolling as I landed, coming up in a crouch. I thickened the shadows around me and stood, slashing its legs and ankles. It swatted at me in vain, lifting its legs up and down as I slashed them. This went on for a few minutes; then as it brought one foot down, I jumped onto it and started climbing. Of course, it felt me and grabbed me, bringing me up so he could look at me. I released the shadows and stared, daring it to snap my spine.

It didn't. Instead, it sniffed me like we were both dogs just meeting each other. While it was doing that, I wriggled my arm free from its grasp and pierced one of its eyes. It screamed, putting his hands on his face, dropping me in the process. I plummeted towards the ground then shadow traveled the rest of the way down, it was a little softer of a landing than just falling. I landed and looked up at the thing. It was done holding its eye and was glaring at me. It drew its broad sword and started towards me. I looked around for something, anything, to use against this thing, because my sword wasn't cutting it, considering how much size it had on me. I saw a fairly big rock and ran towards it, placing my hand on the smooth surface. I concentrated on turning it into a spear; once it did I picked it up and turned towards the creature. The thing started running and I through the spear. It hit its chest, going in deep. It fell to the ground and I felt its life force draining. I sighed and my shoulders sagged. I couldn't risk using any of powers, I had used them to much as it was and I was drained, using them anymore I was risking death.

I looked around the bloody field. I saw Tyrell fighting some half-blood and a surge of anger went through me. How could he just take his friends and join Kronos when he could have gone to the Greek Camp? I turned away angrily and stalked off in some direction, looking for something else to fight. I wondered how Thalia and everyone else were doing in Manhattan. As I walked, I saw Melisa fighting two monsters. She felled one then rounded on the other, yelling some insult. I noticed some monsters heading towards her from behind and made my way towards them. They hissed and spit at me when I blocked their path. I just smirked and drew my arm back and brought it down on them. I disposed of the first one easily and quickly, the second one took a few minutes. I looked back at Melisa just as she finished off the other monster. She noticed me and smiled, I smiled back as she walked over.

"You look horrible," She commented. I looked her up and down.

"So do you," I said. Her smile broadened and she looked around.

As we eyed the battle field, there was a considerable change in the atmosphere. I groaned. I had felt this before, just not to this extent.

"What's going on?" Melisa asked.

"Kronos is slowing time down," I said, "Be careful when you're in a fight." She gave me a worried look but nodded. We walked around together, looking for something to kill. We found a group of Cyclops and approached them. When they saw us, they drew there axes and charged. What is it about these guys and charging people on sight? It's a little weird and not the smartest thing to do. Anyways, we fought them and were pretty evenly matched. I was about to kill the one I was fighting when something exploded and I went flying, crashing into the ground and smacking my head on a rock in the process. Of course, with time being slowed down, it was all in slow motion, which under different circumstances would have been awesome, but now? Not so much. I groaned and watched the black dots swirling around in my sight. In the distance I heard Melisa yelling my name. I tried to answer her but my voice refused to work. The Aphrodite girl appeared through the smoke and saw me and jogged over.

"Ni—Oh my God." She hurried over and started trying to lift a big, heavy looking branch off my arm. No wonder I couldn't feel it.

"Mel you can't possibly lift that," I said, finding my voice. Melisa glared at me.

"Why don't you try?" She snapped. I looked at her.

"That's not what I meant," I said, looking at a nasty gash on her arm. She managed to get a grip on the branch and lift it a little. I leaned over and helped her move it to the side.

Melisa knelt next to me and looked at my arm worriedly. There was a tiny piece of bone sticking out of my arm just above the elbow. There were also a few bruises that hurt, a lot. Considering I couldn't feel my arm, I figured they were pinched or broken nerves, or both. Before Melisa could protest, I stood up, grabbing my sword, and started walking.

"Nico! You need to fix that or get it looked at!" Melisa said, walking after me.

"Unless you haven't noticed, we're in a war Melisa, I _can't_ get it looked at," I said harshly, "I'm fine." She didn't say anything, just looked at the ground. I felt a little guilty about yelling at her, but I didn't say anything. I had a weird feeling. You know how husbands/wives or parents and with their children can always tell when the other is in danger? Well, it was like that. I knew Logan was fine so it could only be one person. Emery. I started running in some direction. It hurt to move my arm around but I ignored it and kept going, looking around for the lone daughter of Artemis. Melisa followed until I told her not to, I couldn't risk letting her get hurt.

I didn't know how long I ran. I just ran, following the feeling. I surprised myself at how far I could go, I didn't think I had enough stamina seeing how drained I was. I ran until I reached a isolated group of monsters and demigods. I noticed that the speed of everything was back to normal, which was good. I slowed my pace and walked forward, sword raised. Everyone turned to me and parted, letting me through. Ok, now this was getting weird. They didn't attack at all. No insults, taunts, jabs, no nothing. Then I saw what it was they wanted me to see. I froze and my sword clattered to the stone ground. My mouth went dry as I starred. This wasn't happening. This _couldn't_ be happening. I shook my head as I backed up slowly.

"No, no, no. Not her. Anything but her," I said quietly. On the bloodied stone table was Emery's broken body. She wasn't totally dead, but I could see her life force leaving her body.

I felt someone push me forward and I reluctantly strode towards the table. I reached out, my hand shaking slightly, and touched her arm lightly. Silently, I prayed to every god there was, even my father, that she would doing something, _anything_, to tell me that she was still with me. She didn't. My mind reeled through the memories I had of her. Then her words rang in my head. 

"_Go away! I'm sick you!"_

I withdrew my hand, my face contorted in anger. I retreated away from the table, a few of the demigods giving me a weird looks. A new voice spoke, loud and clear. I recognized it as Kronos. I really couldn't tell what he said, but two demigods walked up and picked Emery up and started to carry her away. I felt a weird feeling but I shoved it away. Tyrell was one of the two demigods and, once again, I felt a surge of anger and I couldn't help it, I yelled at him.

"You could have gone to the Greek camp, you know, instead of joining Kronos," I said. I didn't recognize my voice. Sure, I could be cold. But, my voice here was beyond cold. He looked at me, his eyes flashing, but said nothing and kept going.

"But no, you had to lead your friends to Kronos, possibly to their death," I continued. Tyrell froze.

"Shut up," He growled. I smiled.

"Regretting your decision, Tyrell?" My brother set Emery down and started towards me, but someone grabbed his arm, saying something to him. Tyrell glared at me but didn't move. A few other half-bloods approached me, one taking my sword along the way. I tensed but knew I didn't really stand a chance against them. Still, I put up some fight, but the over powered me and I went with them willingly.


	19. Chapter 19

**Heyy! So heres chapter 19. Thank you to silverbite, lostinmylalaland, I'm A Weirdo Deal With It and ffsah1 for reviewing! **

_There's a fine line_

_Between love and hate_

_And I don't mind just let me_

_Say that I like that, I like that!_

_**~Diary of Jane, Breaking Benjamin**_

_**Chapter 19**_

**Nico's POV**

I sat in my cell in a corner. I don't know how long I had been in here but it was a long time. I tried sleeping to pass time but I couldn't. My knuckles were bleeding from punching the stone wall. Surprisingly, they aren't broken. My broken arm hurt a lot, most likely because I've been using it to much. I thumped my head against the wall then pressed my palms to my forehead. I groaned, irritated. I had to get out of here but I was too weak, right now at least. I heard a knocking on my door and looked up.

"You hungry, kid?" someone asked.

"No."

"You sure?"

"Yes! I'm sure! Now leave me alone!"

"Kid, you gotta eat," The person persisted. I growled.

"Why would you care?" The person sighed and peeked his head through the door and looked at me in the corner. I stared at him. I wasn't in the best mood right now. Footsteps echoed along the hall and someone else stopped by my cell. I couldn't tell who. They started talking in hushed voices then both of them walked off after slipping a small plate of food into the cell. I sighed and walked over to the plate and ate some of it. I almost gagged because it tasted so bad. After eating I managed to fall asleep.

My eyes shot open and I gasped for breathe. Man I wish demigods could go without having weird dreams. I dreamed of Emery (go figure). It must have been her past or something because I saw her as a little kid playing with this guy. So, they stayed friends up until a few months before she came to my school. Apparently, she loved this said guy but something went wrong and he tried to kill her. I would tell you what exactly went wrong, but I couldn't tell. Anyways, then the dream went up to the present and I saw her in this cell. She did not look to good. When she was on the stone table, I couldn't really tell the extent of her injuries. Well, here her shirt was ripped in a lot of different places. Basically, it was ripped to the point where it was useless to wear. She had various gashes, cuts and bruises. Thankfully, she didn't have any broken bones.

"It's about time. I was wondering if you would ever wake up." I turned and looked at a teenager, probably a little older than me, which is weird, because, there was no one else in my cell when I fell asleep. Oh crap.

"How long have I been out?" I asked.

"I dunno; you were out when I was put in here."

"And how long was that?"

"Maybe a day or so." I face palmed, groaning then thumped my head against the wall.

"Whoa, chill kid. What's up?"

"I've been in here for too long," I said. The guy nodded. Then a thought occurred to me. This guy had to be one of the half-bloods I brought here. But then why don't I recognize him? Ugh.

"What's your name?" I asked, looking at him.

"Colt." I nodded.

"Why're you here?" I asked.

"I was fighting and got out numbered and they captured me," Colt said, "who are you?"

"Nico." I really don't recognize or know this guy. Of course he could just be a half-blood that lived around here. Colt sat down and looked at me.

"So, are you a half-blood?" He asked. I nodded.

"Are you?"

"Yeah." Ok, we're getting somewhere.

"Do you live around here?" I asked.

"Well….I live close to where Kronos' guys attacked," He said, "Why?"

"Because I don't recognize you from the group I brought over here," I said, feeling relieved.

"Wait, you brought all those half-bloods?"

"Yup."

"Cool."

"Yeah, was I seriously out for a few days?"

"Uh-huh."

I cursed in Greek. Now I _had_ to get out of here. If only I had my sword. I tried shadow-travelling but it didn't work. They must have drugged me. Which makes sense. I'm guessing the food was drugged. Colt didn't really say anything after that, we just sat in silence. I sincerely hoped Logan had been smart and stayed put. He wasn't dead, which was good. I checked and made sure everyone else out there wasn't dead. They weren't, some were badly injured though. After a while, multiple footsteps could be heard heading towards us. A few minutes more and they unlocked the cell door and strode in. I suppressed yelling at Tyrell when he walked in; instead I just clinched my fits. There were three of them total, two of those acid things then Tyrell. The two acid things walked over to Colt and grabbed his arms then looked at Tyrell questioningly. I could tell they weren't asking if it was ok if they took Colt, it was different, like they didn't trust him. Tyrell glared at them and nodded towards the door, as if to say just leave. They did, taking Colt with them. Then my brother turned to me, crouching in front of me.

"You want to get out of here?" He asked. I almost laughed. I didn't because he looked serious. All I could think of to say was:

"…..What?" He rolled his eyes.

"You heard me."

"Yeah I did. Why should I trust you?"

"Because I'm the only one who could get you out of here and Emery will die if you don't." Oh gee, he actually remembered her name.

"I don't care, she can rot in hell," I said, my voice cold. Tyrell smirked.  
>"Yes you do, you just think you don't."<p>

"Since when are you the love expert?" I asked, glaring.

"I never said I was," Tyrell said, "I watched you when you saw her on the stone table. You are about her; you just don't want to admit it. Now, are you coming or not?"

I remembered my dream of Emery. I was still mad at her but I couldn't stand the thought of her dying when I had a chance to save her. I sighed.

"Fine," I said, "I'll go. Do you guys have any spare shirts around here?" I asked the shirt thing since Emery needed one. Tyrell looked at me oddly.

"No I don't think so, why?" I shook my head.

"Never mind, let's just go." He took my arm and led me out of the cell and into the hall way. While we were walking, I felt a buzzing in my head then froze. Colt. I looked back down the hall behind us. Tyrell tugged on my arm.

"He's dead, there's nothing you can do." I reluctantly followed him down the halls. While we were walking he handed me my sword. I took it, looking at him oddly. Honestly, I was surprised he had it with him.

After a while of walking, we reached the spot where they were keeping prisoners like Emery. Tyrell held up his hand and released my arm, peering around a corner. He signaled for me to take out my sword. I did and we walked around the corner. Two monsters charged us, one fiddling with a radio device. I knocked the radio out of his hand then killed the monsters, smashing the radio with my foot. We kept going and went through a door leading to more cells. These cells made mine look homie. They were tiny, about the same size as a twin bed, with chains hanging from the wall in case they wanted to chain the person to the wall. Tyrell led me to Emery's cell and I felt bile rise in my throat. She was exactly like she was in the dream, but for some reason, it looked worse in person. For one, her body was dirty and had dirt and mud on it. She just looked horrible; I'm surprised she was still alive. Well…..she wasn't gonna last much longer. Her jeans had been cut off so they were shorts….really short shorts. And you know how her shirt was. Her hair was a mess, and I mean _a mess_. It was matted and had blood in it and was all in her face. Tyrell unlocked the door and we walked in. I grabbed one arm and he took the other and we walked out of the cell, making out way towards the exit…where ever it was.

We skirted monsters and demigods along the way and when we were close to the exit, these two monsters jumped down from a ledge near the roof, landing on top of us. Again, I didn't recognize the monster, but it looked like a wolf…except a _lot_ bigger. Not as big as a hellhound, but big. One was fighting Tyrell the other was shaking the heck out of Emery. Man, she must have been seriously out of it, because she didn't do anything. Just lied limp in the things mouth. I stood and stabbed the things neck and it dropped Emery then fell on its side dead. Another one popped out and bit down on my broken arm. I gritted my teeth, forcing myself not to cry out. It yelped and released me as Tyrell slashed its side. He turned to me, grabbing my other arm and pulling me up. We grabbed Emery and started towards the exit as other wolf-like things started running down the hall at us. Tyrell opened the door and we half ran half jumped out, slamming the door behind us. I plopped down on the ground next to Emery's body, tired. I seemed to be tired a lot.

"Come on," Tyrell said, grabbing Emery. He didn't look like he was gonna carry her though.

"Are you gonna shadow-travel?" I asked. He just nodded and I grabbed his arm then we disappeared.

I grunted as we landed back in the main part of the battle. A few seconds later Tyrell and Emery followed. I stood and walked over to them and crouched next to Emery. I silently hoped she wouldn't die. I heard a yell and turned. Logan jogged over, panting. He had a few extra cuts but other than that didn't look to badly injured, aside from his side. Which had stopped bleeding.

"Logan, what are you doing here?" I asked, irritated. Logan eyed Tyrell then looked at me.

"You were in danger." I groaned and hung my head then looked back at him.

"I was in danger far away from here; now get back to the ditch." He shook his head.

"I wan—"He apparently noticed Emery then and quit talking and just starred. Logan looked at Tyrell then back at me then back at Tyrell.

"Will she be ok?" He asked. I nodded.

"Yes, now go back to the freaking ditch." Logan frowned and looked at Tyrell questioningly.

"What about him?"

"Don't worry about him," I said, "Just go back to the ditch." Gods, how many times do I have to say that?

"Why can't I help fight?" I sighed. Tyrell seemed amused by the whole conversation.

"Because," I said slowly, trying not to lose my temper, "It's dangerous and you could get killed."

Logan opened his mouth to say something then shut it and nodded, getting up and walking back to the ditch.

"How'd you meet him?" Tyrell asked.

"It's a long story," I mumbled, looking at Emery. Tyrell nodded.

"Do you wanna take her back to where ever Logan's going?" He asked. I thought about it then nodded and picked her up and started towards the ditch. No sooner did I do that, there was a loud bark then a hellhound skidded to a stop in front of me. I smiled with I recognized Mrs. O'Leary. (**A/N: Ok, I know her name is something like that, I just can't remember how to spell it…)**. I climbed up on her back with Emery then looked at Tyrell.

"You coming?" I asked. He nodded as he let the hellhound sniff his hand then climbed up behind me. I told Mrs. O'Leary where to go and she bounded off. Once we got there, I slide down and walked over to where Logan was in the ditch. He looked at me questioningly.

"Um…I thought you wanted me over here."

"I do, I just want to keep her with you," I said. Logan nodded, looking at her worriedly. I set Emery down on the ground next to him. I noticed she had a crescent moon necklace around her neck, which started glowing. A few seconds later a pack of wolves appeared around the ditch. I looked at them oddly then I remembered the Hunters have wolves with them. A black wolf approached Emery and sniffed her then looked at me. Maybe it was just me, but I swear that wolf was saying that they would watch her. I just nodded slightly at it then walked back to Mrs. O'Leary.

I glanced back over at Logan, who was making friends with one of the wolves. I smirked and the hellhound bounded off back towards the battle.


	20. Chapter 20

**Hey! Since there really isn't much to say, I'll just say thanks to ffsah1, silverbite and Lostinmylalaland for reviewing! I am glad you guys think Logan's cute XD Oh, and thank you to silverbite again, I'm glad you think I'm doing awesome on the story thanks. **

_I can't stand the pain, and I can't make it go away_

_No, I can't stand the pain, _

_How could this happen to me?_

_I made my mistakes. I've got nowhere to run. _

_The night goes on_

_As I'm fading away. I'm sick of this life_

_I just wanna scream! _

_How could this happen to me….?_

_**~Untitled (How Could This Happen To Me), Simple Plan**_

_**Chapter 20**_

**Nico's POV**

We rode Mrs. O'Leary back to the battle then jumped off. I looked at Tyrell, who was leaning against Mrs. O'Leary.

"Are you coming….?" I asked, pointing my thumb behind me at a half-blood fighting a monster. He shook his head.

"I have to go back." I frowned. So, rescuing me and Emery was a onetime thing huh?

"So, you're just going to go back and we'll be back fighting each other?" I asked; my voice harsh. I didn't enjoy fighting my brother, even though he did get annoying. But, truthfully, when he wasn't mad at you, he was fun to be around. Again, Tyrell shook his head.

"No, I have to go back to get my friends that are still over there." I nodded; then made a face.

"How're you gonna do that when that place is invested with monsters?"

"I'll handle it," He said, then disappeared.

I looked at Mrs. O'Leary, who barked and wagged her tail. I told her to go back to the Underworld so she wouldn't get hurt then turned towards the battle. I took down a few monsters but tried to avoid demigods. I didn't want to accidently kill one of Tyrell's friends. Then one of those wolf-like things came out of nowhere and knocked me down. I grimaced as my broken arm hit the ground then slashed across the things face. It jumped off and started to circle me. I stood and watched it. It snarled and charged me, going for my legs. That thing was a _lot_ faster than it looked. I dived to the left, its teeth grazing my shin. It kept up with me good and changed direction without losing a beat. The next thing I knew was that it was on top of me and ripping at my clothes and skin. I hacked at the creature but its skin was hard, surprisingly. It didn't help any that its fur was rough. So, I tried using my legs. I kicked at it stomach hard, and it fell off my body. I sat up, my shirt torn and bloody, blood dripping into my eyes from a cut on my forehead. Man, this thing was trained well to rip people to shreds, no pun intended. I wiped the blood out of my eyes. It didn't help much because it just kept running but still. It crouched, watching me closely.

I stood and raised my sword. It growled and lunged at my throat. I braced myself for the impact and tilted my sword so it would impale the things heart. Thank Gods it worked, because if it didn't, I would probably be dead. I managed to lift the thing off of me then drew my sword out of its body. I got a buzzing sensation in my head again checked to see who it was. When I got who it was I stood and started running towards the ditch. I ignored bodies, monsters and half-bloods fighting. I ignored it all. I just had to get to that ditch. Thunder cracked in the distance as I ran. When I reached the ditch, I skidded to a halt. In the ditch was this huge snake. And I mean _huge._ It was coiled around Logan. I looked around and couldn't see Emery; I'm guessing the wolves moved her…..somehow. I gritted my teeth, my knuckles turning white from gripping my sword. The snake saw me and hissed, tightening its grip on Logan. I jumped down the ditch, not bothering to check if I could even make it. Right as I landed I had to move since the snake lunged at me. I managed to dodge, but just barely. I crouched, trying to get a good look at Logan, which was hard when a snake is trying to bite you in half. The snake's head lunged at me again and I turned and slashed across its face. It hissed in pain and drew away.

I growled. I had to get it away from Logan. He was dying, slowly, but dying. I stood and started towards the snakes body coiled around Logan. The snake saw me and lunged its head at me. I jumped forward and landed on one coil of its body and continued on up towards Logan. My foot slipped on its scales and I started sliding backwards. I scrabbled for a grip then just stabbed my sword into the snake and pulled myself up. It screeched and snapped at me, biting down on my calf. I cried out and pulled my sword and slashed at it. It ignored me and tossed me aside. I smacked into the side of the ditch. It was raining hard now and the ground was muddy. I groaned. My whole body ached and I was tired as heck. I stood and spit out blood and mud then strode over to the snake. It hissed, its tongue slithering in and out. Suddenly, a splitting pain went up my calf and I fell to my knees. I grabbed the hem of my pants and rolled them up so I could clearly see the bite wounds. Blood seeped out of the holes where its fangs had impaled my skin. My calf throbbed and the skin was turning a purplish color around the bites. Oh great. I should've thought that the snake was poisonous.

I let the pants slide back down my calf and forced myself to stand. I bolted over to its coiled body and jumped onto it, climbing upward. Once I was high enough, I turned. The snake lunged at me once again but this time I stepped sideways and brought my sword down on its flesh below its head, cutting it off. Its head fell to the ground and its body moved around for a few seconds them lied still. I turned and climbed the rest of the way up and pried Logan from the snake's body. I picked him up and started back down. My poisoned leg gave out right then and I fell down the rest of the way. I twisted and landed on my back, Logan on top of me. I cursed in Greek then sat up, feeling Logan's pulse. It was faint.

I noticed he had a few more injuries since I last saw him. I lifted his shirt up. He had bruises around his ribcage signaling broken ribs and there were holes on his side. He had been poisoned to. I tapped the side of his face, trying to wake him.

"Hey, Logan," I said, "Can you hear me?" He didn't answer. I tried doing CPR, which didn't do anything either.

"Come on Logan! Wake up!" I groaned, ignoring the fact that my clothes were soaked. I shook him hard but he still didn't respond.

"Logan! Answer me!" I just sat there my head hung and my hair hanging around my face, dripping water. I could feel the poison weakening my body, but I tried to fight it off. I remembered the day when Bianca died and the feeling of losing everything. My mom. My sister. My home. Seventy years of my life forgotten. All of it. Gone. I shook my head, clinching my fists.

"Logan please," I said quietly, "Do something—anything! I can't go through this again. Please."

I screamed. I don't really even know why. I was just sick of it. Sick of everything. I lied down on my side, curled up. The poison was starting to numb my brain. I was so out of it, I didn't even notice the time slow. Nor did I notice the dark atmosphere around me. Finally, I just got a weird feeling and turned around. I stared at him. I gripped my sword by my hip and my face twisted into a snarl. I stood and lunged at Kronos, but my movements were sloppy partially because of the poison and partially because of his time thing. He blocked with his sword then thrust forward. I went flying and crashing into the ground, making a tiny crater. He had found a new body to reside in. I didn't recognize the half-blood, which was good. He approached me, grinning; his eyes flashing gold. I realized that his presence was draining every near him of life. I don't really know why that happened, since he usually didn't do that. All I know is that I had to get him away from Logan or he truly would die.

I stood and started walking to the side of him, my sword raised. Kronos smiled at him. That evil smile. It's like he knew what I was doing. He struck at me with his sword and I managed to block it, growing accustomed to the slower movements. The force of the blow jarred my arm bad and I winced. This time he locked our swords together then reached out with his other hand and gripped my throat. I stiffened, looking down at the hand then over at Logan. The eight year olds body was paling fast and I could see his life force now. The worst part was though, is that I could feel my own body dying. It felt horrible. It was basically like be stuffed in a microwave then turning the microwave on, except a _lot_ worse. I tore my eyes from Logan and looked at Kronos.

"Why? Why are you doing this?" I managed to say.

"Why you ask? To destroy the gods once and for all," Kronos said his voice cold and hard, "To wipe their entire existence from the earth. They never deserved the fame they had."

His grip tightened on my throat and I knew he could easily snap my neck. I was never one to give up without a fight, but here, I lowered my sword in surrender. I knew that probably looked cowardly or whatever, but fighting wouldn't help me now. Kronos smirked slightly, seeing my defeat. He tightened his grip even further and I glared at him.

"Kill me. It doesn't matter anyway; we'll still defeat you and your army. You'll never destroy the gods," I said. Before he could kill me however, a black blade slid beneath his jaw. He had been so focused on me he had let his guard down.

"Release him." Kronos turned his head to look over his shoulder at my brother and released my throat. I dropped to my knees, coughing. I gripped my sword and crawled over to Logan, leaving Tyrell to Kronos. Usually, I wouldn't do that, but I knew I wasn't strong enough to fight him. The Titan Lord whirled around with blinding speed and struck Tyrell's side, sending him flying. I watched as the two fought. Since I was basically of no use here, I sheathed my sword and pick up Logan. Kronos kicked Tyrell in the chest and he smacked into the ground near me and I looked at him. Our eyes locked and he seemed to be telling me to take Logan somewhere safe. I nodded and closed my eyes, drawing on what strength I had left and shadow-travelled to Camp Half-Blood. I knew it was seriously risking it, but I didn't know where else to take him where they had a place that could properly tend to a half-blood. I landed on Half-Blood Hill and collapsed, Logan's body lying next to mine. All the shadow-travelling, fighting and the poison was too much. I couldn't move anymore. I tried, but to no avail. The last thing I saw before everything turned black was what Apollo kids we left at the camp approaching us.

**A/N: So, thanks again for the people who reviewed, and of course the people who just read the story. Oh, and just a FYI: this story is coming to a close, but dont freak out, there are still a couple more chapters, i dont know how many just yet though. So, yeah, just a little warning. **


	21. Chapter 21

**Hi! Sorry I haven't updated, but I just couldn't think of Emery's part…but today I thought of something so I updated! Yeah, thanks to the people who reviewed! :D **

_How can I get a second chance?_

_Don't want you slipping out my hands_

_Maybe the words will come out right,_

_They sound alright. _

_Just hear me out before I go_

_Things that I wanted you to know_

_Just let me in tonight and I won't let you down!_

_**~Contagious, Boys Like Girls**_

_**Chapter 21**_

**Nico's POV**

The first thing I noticed when I woke up was my really bad headache. My arm hurt but not as bad as it used to and my calf throbbed but didn't hurt too bad. I groaned and forced my eyes open. I was in a small bed in a white room. Bleh, white too much white. It was basically like a tiny version of a hospital room. Outside my room were two people talking quietly. After listening for a few seconds, I knew they were talking about my condition. My broken arm was in a spleen and wrapped tightly but wasn't in a cast. (**A/N: I'm not totally sure if it's called a 'spleen' but it's one of those things where you can put your broken arm in to keep you from moving it to much) **I threw off the covers and got out of bed. I tested my weight on my poisoned leg. It held some, but I would have to limp. I half walked half limped over to the sink, which had a mirror above it. I ran the water and splashed some on my face then looked at my reflection. I am really gonna need a shower. My hair was a mess and had mud and dried blood in it. Oh well.

I looked up from the sink at the sound of the door opening. Tyrell and some Apollo kid stood in the door way.

"You should be resting," The Apollo kid said.

"I'm fine," I said, walking over. The kid frowned at me, but didn't argue and left me and Tyrell. I walked back over to the bed and sat on the edge, Tyrell sitting on a chair beside the bed.

"How long have I been here?" I asked, looking at him.

"A day or two," Tyrell said. I nodded. Considering how tired and beat up I was, that made sense.

"What about Kronos…?" I asked him, remembering him fighting the Titan Lord.

"Dead." I made a face, slightly surprised that he was able to kill him. Then I remembered Logan and stood.

"Where's Logan?"

"He's in a room down the hall," Tyrell said.

I walked out the door and down the hall, looking in different rooms to see which one he was in. Once I found him, I quietly walked in and over to the bed. His torso was wrapped tightly in bandages and he was still pale, but not as much as he was a few days ago. I reached up to feel his pulse and he groaned in response to my touch. I smiled, relieved and sat in a chair in the corner of the room. After a few minutes, Logan opened his eyes and looked around the room then grinned when he saw me.

"You're ok," He said, his voice hoarse.

"Yup," I said, "How are you?"

"I'm fine, where's Emery?" I remembered Emery's condition when we left her in the ditch with Logan and the wolves. I had mixed feelings about her right now, but I shook my head to answer Logan's question.

"I don't remember what happened to her when the snake attacked," Logan said, looking absently at the wall, "All I remember is that I kept the snake away from her while the wolves took her away."

"That was brave," I said, looking at him. Logan nodded and looked around the room.

"Where are we?"

"Camp Half-Blood."

"Camp Half-Blood?" He asked, "How'd we get here?"

"I took you here while Tyrell was fighting Kronos," I said. He looked at me, a little surprised.

"But…you were really beat up…" I nodded.

"Yeah, but you were dying," I said, "I wasn't about to let you die." Logan smiled and I smiled back then stood and walked over to the door.

"I'll let you rest," I said, one hand on the door frame.

"Ok," Logan said, then looked at me sternly, "You'll go talk to Emery, won't you?" I sighed but nodded.

"Good," He said, looking satisfied.

I rolled my eyes and walked out the door and down the hall.

"Where're you going?" I looked up at Tyrell leaning against the wall, Percy next to the other wall across from him. I glanced from one to the other, wondering if they would get into a fight.

"I was going to go talk to Emery," I said, "But if you need me…" Tyrell shook his head and Percy smirked.

"We're fine, Nico," Percy said, "You go talk to Emery." I nodded and wondered the hall until I found Emery's room. I slowly opened the door and walking in uncertainly. She looked at me over the book she was reading; then went back to reading. I shut the door quietly. It's funny how I could fight anything without a problem then confronting a girl makes me nervous.

"Emery….?" I said slowly.

"What is it, Nico?" She asked harshly, not looking up from her book. I closed my eyes and tried to calm myself down.

"How are you?" I asked, leaning my back against the wall.

"What's it to you?" Emery asked, looking at me coldly, "Shouldn't you be with that Melisa girl?" My temper flared but I forced my voice to be calm-ish. I couldn't blow this.

"I wanted to make sure you were ok," I said.

Emery didn't answer, just continued reading whatever book she was reading. I sighed and walked over to her bed and sat on the edge of the bed, pushing the book down with my hand. She looked at me and her hand rose slightly. I thought she was going to slap me, but she didn't.

"Please Emery," I said, "You wouldn't even be here if it weren't for me."

"Is that so?" Emery said coldly, "So, you chose to approach me when I was dying instead of any other time when I was upset?" My eyes flashed.

"I can't believe I actually had sympathy for you in that cell!" I yelled, standing, "I should have let you rot!" I was growing sick of her attitude. I tried talking to her and all she does is get mad at me.

"You should have!" She retorted, "I don't want your sympathy!"

With that, she stood and walked out the door. I sat back down on the bed, my head in my hands. Why am I such an idiot? I growled and punched the pillow. When I did that, there was a crinkling sound. I lifted the pillow and saw various sheets of paper with lyrics on them. As I read over them, I recognized some of the songs. Call Me When You're Sober –Evanescence, Gone Forever –Three Days Grace. I went through the rest of the papers and stopped on the last one. I rummaged around and found a pen then scribbled a note down on the paper and then folded it and slipped it in my pocket. If all else fails, I'll give her the lyrics paper with the note and hope she gets the message. I walked out of the room and left the building. After a while of searching, I found her on the beach talking to Percy. I smiled faintly and watched them for a few seconds. Percy noticed me and stood, said something to Emery, then walked off smiling at me. I smiled back then walked down to the beach towards Emery. I sat next to her hesitantly.

"What do you want?" She asked, not looking at me.

"Emery, I'm sorry for yelling, I just….," I trailed off, not really knowing how to put it.

"Look, I just wanna be alone right now," Emery said. I nodded and stood.

"At least take this," I said, handing her the paper then walking off towards my cabin.

**Emery's POV**

I took the paper he handed me and slipped it in my pocket, without looking at it. I sighed and watched the tide wash up, the water brushing my feet. I growled and threw my hands in the air. I was confused about what to do with Nico. Sure, I was still angry at him, but I could tell he was upset. Why did this have to be so freaking confusing? I lied down on my back, my hands behind my head. I heard footsteps and looked around and spotted Melisa. Man, she had some nerve coming up to me. I frowned and glared at her. She stopped right next to me, her hand on her hip.

"What?" I asked curtly. Melisa sighed and sat cross-legged then looked at me.

"I know you probably don't want to see me," She said carefully, "But, at least hear me out." I eyed her but slowly turned to face her.

"Fine," I said. Melisa smiled faintly.

"It's about Nico." Now, I know I basically agreed to hear her out, but when she said that I stiffened and went defensive.

"Oh? You want to tell me how great and awesome he is? How much you love and adore him and what I'm missing out on?"

Melisa frowned and seemed to calm herself down then shook her head.

"No," She said, "that's not what I was going to say. I accidently over heard your guy's conversation in the hospital and thought I'd talk to you."

"Why me?" I asked.

"Because I don't need to talk to Nico about anything," Melisa said, "You're the one that needs to be talked to." I cocked one eye brow and waited for her to continue. She sighed and took a breath.

"First of all, Nico loves you I can see that and I feel really bad about getting between you guys. I guess I was just jealous because I had a crush on him, but, I'm willing to give that up for you. I think you need to talk to him." I blinked at her, surprised. I honestly wasn't expecting that. Right at that moment, I wasn't mad anymore, just confused. I looked at Melisa and she smiled at me.

"OK, but what do I say?" I asked, "I've never been good at talking about stuff like this."

"Well," Melisa said, "You could look at the note he gave you, maybe it'll help you." I looked at her oddly, but nodded.

"Alright, but it's getting late, I'm gonna go back to my cabin," I said, standing and walking off.

Once in my cabin, I placed the note on my dresser then changed into some shorts and a T-shirt. I sighed and ran my hand through my hair, then took the note and sat on my bed. I unfolded it and recognized his handwriting on the top corner.

_Emery, _

_I've never really been good at expressing my feelings towards people; I sorta get worked up easily. But, I'm really sorry about the whole Melisa thing. I was an idiot and I just wanted to say that I know who I love now. _

_Nico. _

I smiled unconsciously then realized that this was one of the lyrics papers I wrote during my time in the cell at Kronos' camp. I guess he found them under my pillow. I looked over it and put a hand to my mouth, trying not to cry. I'm not usually the crying type, so this is rare.

"I don't want this moment to ever end

Where everything's nothing

Without you 3.

I wait here forever

Just to

To see your smile

'Cause it's true, I am nothing without you.

Through it all, I've made my mistakes

I stumble and fall

But I mean these words.

I want you to know

With everything I won't let this go

These words are my heart and soul

I hold onto this moment you know

'Cause I bleed my heart out to show

And I won't let go.

Thoughts read unspoken

Forever and now

And pieces of memories, fall to the ground

I know what I did and have so

I won't let this go

'Cause its true

I'm nothing

Without you.

All the streets where I walked alone

With nowhere to go

Have come to an end!

I want you to know

With everything I won't let this go

These words are my heart and soul

I hold onto this moment you know

'Cause I bleed my heart out to show and I won't let go

In front of your eyes

It falls from the skies

When you don't know what you're looking to find

In front of your eyes, it falls from the skies

When you just never know what you will find

I don't want this moment

To ever end

Where everything's nothing

Without you….. 3

I want you to know

With everything I won't let this go!

These words are my heart and soul

I hold onto this moment you know

'Cause I bleed my heart out to show and I won't let go…"

I smiled and laughed softly. Thanks Nico. I wanted to go talk to him, but it was late and I wasn't sure if he was still awake. Eh, I'll go talk to him anyway. I stood and walked out of my cabin, taking the note with me. The full moon was at its peak in the sky and bathed Camp Half-Blood in its pale light. I looked around to make sure no one else was around them made my way to the Hades cabin. I walked up the porch steps quietly then knocked on the door. There was some rustling then someone cracked open the door and peered at me. I recognized him as the guy who captured Nico on Imperia Island. I made a mental note to ask Nico why he was here.

"Uh is Nico there…?" I asked, slipping my hands behind my back to hide the note. He nodded.

"Yeah, but he's asleep…," he said, "I can wake him up if you want."

"Yeah sure." Might as well, you know? The guy shut the door. I heard him say something, then an irritated voice. I smirked. Nico didn't like to me woken up. The guy said something else then there were footsteps and the door reopened to reveal Nico. His hair was messy from bed but he seemed thoroughly shocked to see me.

"Hey," I said. He scratched the back of his head in that cute way of his.

"Uh hey," Nico said. I didn't want to talk to him when other people could hear so I grabbed his wrist and lead him away from the cabins.

Once we were far enough away I stopped and turned to look at him. I noticed that he was wearing a tank-top. I had never seen him in a tank-top before, so I stared at him. Nico rolled his eyes and snapped his fingers by my head.

"Hey, why'd you take me all the way out here?" He asked, looking around.

"Because I don't wanna talk to you when other people can hear us," I said. He nodded then noticed the note in my hand.

"I read your note…," I said. Ugh. This is ridiculous. I was getting a little shy. Joy. Nico nodded slowly, seeming uncertainly of what to do. I frowned at him then hugged him. He hugged me back then pulled away and smiled.

"I'm sorry I was such a jerk," I said. Nico opened his mouth to say something then made a face. I looked at him expectantly.

"It's cool," He said, looking at me.

"Sooo, I've never seen you in a tank-top," I said. Nico looked down at his shirt them back at me, a goofy grin on his face. He always seemed to show a more playful side when he was around me.

"It was the first thing I saw," He explained. I nodded.

"Ah."

We lied down on the grass and looked up at the stars. I was happy we were together again. I knew now that I truly loved Nico, even though some people thought he was cold and dark. But, once you got to know him, he was really nice. I felt his finger poke my ribs and grabbed his wrist. He smirked and started poking me with his other hand. I yelped and moved away. He laughed and chased me around. After a few minutes, Nico tackled me and we rolled around fighting like we used to do. Finally he pinned me. I smiled up at him and he smiled back.

"So," He said, "Now that we're together, will you go out with me?"

"Yes, I will go out with you, Nico," I said, smirking. Nico bent down and kissed me and I kissed him back, relishing in the feeling of his lips on mine. He pulled away and helped me up and we made our way back to the cabins.

"Oh," I said, "Who's that guy that answered the door at your cabin?"

"Tyrell," Nico said, "He was the guy that—"

"Captured you," I finished, "Yeah, I recognized him." Nico nodded.

"He's really nice, as long as he's not mad, he'll be staying here from now on."

"Really? Ok, maybe you can introduce me tomorrow."

"Sure," He said as we walked up to my cabin.

I opened the door and started to walk in when he grabbed my arm to stop me.

"Emery?" He asked.

"Yeah?" I asked, looking back at him.

"I love you."

"I love you to," I said quietly, then walked into my cabin, placing the note he gave me on my dresser. I quickly changed then plopped onto my bed, feeling happy and complete.

**A/N: …Yeah…..there you go. Song in the chapter is called With Me- Sum 41, I don't own it….sadly**


	22. Chapter 22

**Heyy! I'm sooo sorry for the prolonged update; I've been busy and just haven't had time to finish the chapter. But, I here it is, hope ya like it. **

_Cause it's you and me_

_And all other people, with nothing to do_

_Nothing to lose_

_And it's you and me and all other people_

_And I don't know why_

_But I can't keep my eyes off of you_

_**You and Me, LifeHouse**_

_**Chapter 22**_

**Nico's POV**

It had been a few days since me and Emery had gotten back together and today was the last day of camp. I stared at the bag I had packed with all my clothes and stuff. All the Roman demigods were doing pretty well. At first everyone was against them staying because of the Roman heritage, but me and a few others fixed that. We had the whole debate thing in the Wreck Room around a ping-pong table, which was really weird. (**A/N: I don't know if it's called the 'Wreck Room' but I think it's something like that….). ** But, also fun, since everyone started yelling so I had to use a megaphone. So, after a while, everyone agreed to let the Roman demigods stay. I zipped up the bag then left it on my bed and walked out the door. We still had time until everyone left camp, aside from the people who stayed all year long. Most people were packing though. The few that weren't were standing around talking or playing basketball. I watched as some girl walked up to Tyrell, who was sitting on a bench holding a water bottle. As I watched, they started talking then after a few minutes, the girl wrote something down on his hand. I smirked and shook my head. I guess everybody was getting together with _someone_.

I started over to him and leaned against the back of the bench.

"Looks like you've got yourself a date," I said, smirking. He looked at me and made a face.

"I guess," Tyrell said, looking at the people playing basketball, "It sorta weird though. I'm here for a few days and I already have people writing their phone numbers on my hand." He showed me his hand. I raised my eyebrows at it. He had three different phone numbers. Wow.

"Dude, seriously?" I said, "Are you gonna talk to all of them?" He shrugged and didn't say anything else. Ok then. That's the end of that conversation. After a few minutes I decided to go see what Emery was doing and made my way towards her cabin. When I got there, her door was open. I leaned against the doorframe and stuck my hands in my pockets.

"Whatcha doin?" I asked. She looked up at me and smiled.

"Packing. I never realized how much stuff I had." I smirked.

"That's how it is when you pack."

Emery nodded and I walked over and helped her pack then picked up a slip of paper on her dresser.

"What's this?" I asked, holding the note out to her. She browsed over the note.

"Oh that," She said, "It's a letter from my dad. Don't know why he wrote, he could have just called, but anyway. He wrote to see how I was doing and stuff."

"Ohhh," I said, folding the letter back up and setting it back on the dresser. We packed her stuff and set the bags by her door. Emery stretched by the doorway. I noticed that she was wearing black skinny jeans and a dark purple shirt. I had never seen her where skinny jeans before….weird.

"What?" Emery asked, noticing me watching her.

"You're wearing skinny jeans." She looked down at her jeans then cocked an eyebrow at me.

"So?"

"Nothing, I've just never seen them on you," I said, walking out the door, gesturing for her to follow. Emery shrugged and followed me out the door.

We walked around near the basketball court just talking and playing around. Soon, some of the guys playing basketball asked if we wanted to join in. I looked at Emery, leaving the decision to her. She shrugged.

"Sure." So, we played a few games of basketball, and pretty soon, the dinner bell rang and we started over to the pavilion. After giving my offering, I walked over to the Hades table and slide onto the bench. I was joined by Tyrell and Logan a few seconds later. I looked over at Logan and noticed his hands were blistered. I cocked an eyebrow at him.

"What happened to your hands?"

"He burned them while climbing the lava wall thing," Tyrell said.

"I almost fell off to," Logan added around a fry. I smirked and started eating my food. Once dinner was finished, people started saying goodbye and stuff. I went to my cabin and grabbed my bag then went over to Artemis' cabin. I was just gonna shadow-travel our bags over along with us since it would be easier. There was a knock on the door and Emery opened it to reveal Logan.

"Can I go with you guys?" He asked, "I can shadow-travel myself." Emery looked at him, surprised.

"You can do that?"

"Yeah."

"Are you sure?" I asked, "Because the first time I shadow-traveled I made many unplanned trips to China."

"China? Seriously?" Emery laughed. I nodded.

"I can do it," Logan said, more confidently. I told him Emery's address then shadow-traveled, mine and Emery's stuff to her house.

We landed in her back yard, surprising her dad, who was sitting on the porch drinking a soda.

"Dad!" Emery said, running over and hugging her Father.

"Hey! Happy Birth-Day Emery." He said, then pulled away and waved at me. I nodded at him and started into the house. I remembered that it was Emery's Birth Day tomorrow. Guess I have some shopping to do. I frowned at that thought. I would really have to think of something to get her. Hmm. I set our bags down in Emery's room then walked down stairs into the kitchen, glancing out the back door at Emery introducing her Dad to Logan. I smiled and grabbed three sodas and walked outside. I handed the sodas to Emery and Logan, saving one for me.

"I never knew you had a brother," Emery's Dad said, looking at me. I nodded and held up two fingers.

"I have two, Logan and Tyrell," I said.

"Where's Tyrell gonna stay?" Logan asked.

"California," I said, "He said he had a friend there."

"How old is Tyrell?" Mr. Sterling asked.

"Eighteen or Nineteen." He nodded and sat on one of the porch chairs.

Emery and I told him about all that had happened during the time we were at Camp Half-Blood, including the war. We left out the part of our little…fall out. Hehe. I doubt he would want to hear about that, besides, that would be awkward to explain anyway. Once all catching up was done, we went up stairs and played XBOX and fiddled around while Emery's Dad went to his office. After a while, we went to bed. Well, Logan slept in the guest room and me and Emery stayed in her room. Once Logan figured out that we sleep in the same bed, he gave me a stern but amused look. I swear, for an eight year old, that kid has a sick mind. We sat in bed in silence for a while. I was thinking on what to get Emery for her Birth Day. I mean, I knew technically what clothes she liked, but that just seemed boring. I wanted to get her something different, or at least something she wouldn't expect.

"You're really quiet, is something wrong?" Emery's voice broke my train of thought. I looked at her lying on her side facing me. Her dark hair framed her face, and one finger twirled a strand idly.

"I was just thinking," I said, reaching over and brushing some stray hair from her face. She must have guessed what I was thinking because she looked from my hand to my face.

"Nico, you don't have to get me anything," She said, "Really."

"I want to."

"I know, but—"I cut her off my kissing her lightly.

"I want to, K?" She nodded and we went to bed.

That morning, I woke up and got out of bed carefully so I wouldn't wake up Emery. I walked over to my bag to grab some clothes since the ones I was wearing I had been wearing for a few days. While I did this, I noticed Logan sitting on a beanie bag watching. I looked from him to Emery then back and frowned.

"What are you doing here?" I asked, standing and walking over to him.

"I woke up really early and couldn't go back to sleep," He explained, looking at me, "So, I came in here, but I didn't wanna wake you guys up so I just sat here."

"Oh." He nodded. I went to a bathroom to change and take a really quick shower then me and Logan went down stairs to eat. Emery's Dad was at work, so it was pretty quiet. We had some waffles. We ate in silence for a while. I looked around the house while I ate. I never realized how big it was. I'm pretty sure there were parts that I had never seen before.

"Hey Nico." I looked at Logan.

"Yeah?"

"I'm glad I met you," He said with a goofy grin on his face. I smiled.

"Me to," I said, standing and walking over to the sink. Logan must have noticed I had shoes on because he looked at me curiously.

"Where are you going?"

"I am going to go see if I can find something for Emery's Birth Day," I said. Logan smiled, his eyes lighting up.

"Can I help?" He asked, putting his plate in the sink then looking at me pleadingly. I laughed.

"Sure."

We headed out of the house after he got his shoes on and stuff. We walked along the streets for a while. It was really nice out. Not really cold but not seriously hot. Actually, more on the cold side. There were lots of people walking around. Older couples sitting on benches, younger ones running around laughing. We walked in and out of stores. It was growing harder to find something good. Sure, there were really nice pieces of jewelry that I think she would like, but still, I was looking for something different. After a while, we sat on a bench with some hot dogs.

"So, what are you looking for exactly?" Logan asked around his food.

"I don't know," I said, looking around, "I guess something aside from clothes and jewelry." Logan nodded and we finished eating and were off to the streets of New York. Soon, I was looking in a window and he was looking around a little ways up the street.

"Hey! Nico come look at this!" He called. I jogged over to where he was crouching on the corner of the street. It was a box filled with the _cutest_ puppies in the world. I don't know what breed, probably mutts but they were so tiny and cute. There were six total and had to be at least 8 or 9 weeks old.

They were all different colors two. One was all black, another all tan. The others were all different colors. The sign by the box said ten dollars each. I shrugged. Why not? I knew Emery wanted a dog, so why not get her one?

"Why don't you get her a dog?" Logan asked. I nodded, smiling and picked up a pup that was red and black with a white stomach and bright amber eyes. Then paid the guy there the ten dollars.

"Hope she likes it!" He called as we walked off. We headed to Petsmart to get a leash and collar and stuff. I put the pup in a cart; then went around the store. Once I bought the stuff we needed, we headed back to my apartment. I set the pup down and grabbed the collar out of the bag and fitted it around her neck. Logan and I played around with her for a while. Man, that pup had some energy and really sharp teeth. There was a knock on my door.

"Nico? It's me, I brought your stuff," Emery said through the door. I hastily picked up the pup and walked from the living room to my room and set her down in the bathroom then shut the door, telling her to be quiet. Then I went over to the door and opened it and let Emery in. She smiled at me and set my bag down.

"What have you been doing all day?" She asked. I looked at a clock and realized that it was 4:30.

"You know….stuff," I said.

Emery cocked one eyebrow at me but said nothing.

"I'm hungry," Logan said. I looked at him and pointed into the kitchen.

"There's a pantry in there." He nodded and walked over to the said pantry. I plopped down on the couch by Emery and we talked for a while. I should have figured that the pup wouldn't keep quiet for long because she started whining and yelping. Emery looked sidelong at me and I grinned.

"What did you do?" She asked.

"Why don't you go find out?" I asked, shoving her shoulder. Emery stood and walked to the bathroom and yelped in surprise. Me and Logan started laughing as she walked back to us carrying the pup.

"When did you get a puppy?" She asked, looking at me. I shook my head.

"Look at the name tag," I said, pointing to the collar. When I got the collar I decided to put a name tag on it that said Happy Birth-Day. So, Emery looked at the name tag and smiled and hugged me.

"Aww thanks Nico!"

"Hey, it was Logan's idea," I said. Emery looked at Logan, who smiled shyly. She hugged him to and said thanks.

Emery decided to name the puppy Jade. We played with her for a while, then Emery's Dad arrived with cake, ice cream etc. He was surprised to find out that Jade was Emery's new puppy, but seemed to like the idea none the less. We ate all the food and talked for a while. Afterwards, we played some board games then Emery's Dad had to leave. Emery decided to spend the night, which I was happy about. Logan crashed on the couch since he was tired. Emery and I went into my room and shut the door so we wouldn't wake him up. She went through all my CD's and selected one then put it on. We went crazy dancing around and being crazy. Most teenagers were though. Jade joined in on the dancing, which I have to say, was _hilarious_. She put her front paws on Emery's waist like she was a human and moved around with her. I grabbed my camera and took some pictures, which they posed for. Pretty soon though, we got tired and crashed on my bed, Jade included.

"Hey Nic?" Emery asked, looking over at me.

"Hmm?"

"You're awesome." I smirked.

"Nooo, you're more awesome than I am," I said teasingly, returning her gaze. She rolled her eyes and kissed me. I smiled and kissed her back, moving closer to her. After a few seconds she pulled away and rested her forehead against mine.

"So, are you happy the principal assigned you to me for whatever reason?" She asked. I glared at her.

"You shut up." Her smiled broadened at that.

"I'll take that as a yes," She said quietly then rested her head against my shoulder and closed her eyes.

I watched her sleep for quite some time. I'm sure Jason would laugh if he saw us like this. I smirked at the thought. I went through all the things we had gone through. The attacks during the time of getting to Impervia Island, being captured at the island, then later the battle. The emotional battle with Melisa, and the war to defeat Kronos. We had been through a lot. I knew that night that I truly loved Emery and would do anything for her. Yes, indeed was I was happy to have met Emery, Daughter of Artemis. I kissed her forehead lightly then closed my eyes and went to sleep.

**The Next Morning**

Something was licking my face. I groaned and rolled over, shoving whatever it was away. It persisted and started licking me again. I remembered Jade and opened my eyes to the face of the puppy looking at me, wagging her tail. I smiled and petted her head then sat up, yawning.

"Morning," Emery said, walking in, "You sleep like the dead, you know?"

"Yup, it would be weird if I didn't," I said.

"I vacuumed the whole apartment and you didn't even stir, not even a little." I nodded. Made sense. I had breakfast and put my shoes on and we took Jade for a walk. Logan was still sleeping on the couch. We walked around Central Park and through the ball for Jade.

"You know," Emery said, "You could just move in with me and my Dad."

"I could," I said, "I don't have much stuff anyway."

"So, why don't you?"

"Would your Dad mind?" I asked, glancing over at her then throwing the ball. She shrugged.

"I don't think so," She said, "I think he likes you anyway."

"Well, what about Logan?" I couldn't just leave the kid. I mean, that'd be putting him back to living in the sewers and I didn't want to do that. Emery thought about it for a few minutes.

"He could come to," She finally said, "He's nice and a cute kid."

So, we went back to my apartment and we all packed my clothes and all my other stuff. I put my CD's in my backpack and managed to find the box my stereo came in and repacked it. By eleven, we had all my stuff packed. Told ya I didn't have much stuff. Me and Logan began shadow-travelling them to her house. We unpacked the boxes in the second guest room while Emery called her Dad. After a few minutes, she told us that we could stay. Good thing to, since I didn't want to have to move all the stuff back. Once everything was unpacked, her Dad came home for lunch.

"So, Emery," He said.

"Yeah?"

"Well, since your now sixteen," He said, "Why don't we go get your license?" Emery smiled and hugged her Dad and he laughed and we all got in the car to go to the DMV. We got there and she took the test and soon had her license. She was seriously happy and excited. Her Dad dropped us off back at her house then headed back to where ever he worked.

"So, you can officially drive," I said.

"Yup!" She said, beside herself. I laughed.

"Don't you guys have an extra car somewhere?" Logan asked.

"Yeah…in the garage," Emery said. Logan looked at her as if to say, 'Well? Why don't you drive it?'" Emery looked at me and I nodded. So, we went to the garage and got into their extra car, which was _really_ nice.

We drove around all day long. Going to the mall just to hang out and we went bowling. We also stopped to get some food then fiddled around more. Then we decided to go to the movies. Yup, today was probably one of the best days I've had. We saw some movie about these aliens that invaded earth and the army had to fight them. It was pretty good. Afterwards, it was late so we headed back to her house.

"What would you do if aliens did invade earth?" Logan asked.

"I dunno," Emery said, "depends on if half-blood weapons worked on them."

"I don't think they would," I said, "Since there not Greek, you know?" Both of them nodded.

"So, I guess I would use guns and stuff like they did in the movie," Emery said.

"Aren't you supposed to kiss in movies though?" Logan asked. I turned around in the seat to look at him. He smirked.

"That's if it's a romantic movie, Logan," I said.

"Oh," He said, "I'm surprised you follow that rule though."

"Shut up." Emery laughed and pulled into her drive way. We walked in and went to bed, since it was sorta late and we were all tired.

I crashed in my room and immediately fell asleep. Like I said, today was the best day I can remember. How could it not be though? I have an awesome younger brother and I live with my girlfriend and her Dad. Yeah, I could get used to this.

**A/N: There ya go! So, sadly, this is probably the last chapter to this story. I just wanna thank every single one of you guys who read my story, you guys are totally awesome. I could never have done this without you I hope you liked the story and thanks for sticking with Nico and Emery through everything they went through. **

**~TheNightWhispers**


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